Those engineering DIVAS

A few decades ago, if you were to ask a student what he/she intended to do in their life? The pat response was either doctor or engineer. While becoming a doctor or engineer is not the only resort today, interestingly, many professional engineers have chosen to diva their way into acting or directing. Bengaluru Chronicle reports on these engineering ‘beauties’ who recently engineered their ways into the world of entertainment — some chose to stay in front of the camera and a few created celluloid magic behind it.

A topper in computer science engineering, Gowthami Gowda who made a mark on the Kannada small screen has created her own space in the industry. Despite attaining fame and success at such a young age, she took a break from it to continue her studies.

“I was a topper in studies, as I strongly believed in academics. As a trained classical dancer, I easily made it to the small screen. I had no stage fear and I could make use of the basic emotions needed to act. Though I enjoyed immense popularity, I was just like any other student at SET IT College in Kaggadasapura. However, I still managed to remain in the limelight with reality shows. Only after I finished my engineering, did I start working on full-fledged feature films. I am very tech-savvy, and apart from acting, I am working on exploring something new which will help the entertainment industry,” says Gowthami  

Insofar as Miss Super Talent World, Nimika Ratnakar, is concerned, she finished her engineering in electronic science from the Managaluru Institute of Technology. “I worked for a private firm for a brief period before I started acting. It was a completely different experience for me, and my musical skills helped me bag the talent award for best musician. Following my return from Seoul, I kept getting offers to work in films and eventually chose acting,” she says.

Though most of these ‘beautiful talents’ have turned actresses, direction which has always been dominated by men sees female engineering entrants.
With a distinction in engineering from RV College, Nithya Ramesh’s first love was always films. In between industrial engineering and management studies, she started writing scripts with a dream to shine as an actress and even direct at least one horror film in the future. She ended up assisting popular director Ram Gopal Varma and Puri Jagganadh before venturing into her first-ever horror short film.

The writer, director, and actor pursued engineering as her father always wanted her to become an engineer. “Acting and films have always been my first love. However, it was my father who wanted me to be an engineer. I could not resist writing scripts while I was pursuing my studies. I recently lost my father, who was a great source of inspiration. He would help me on weekends whenever I discussed films. I wish, he was around to see my dreams fulfilled,” she says.

Another female director, Roshini who is set to direct her debut Kannada movie Asavari has studied sound engineering from an institute in Chennai. There is Ashika Gopal Padukone, the latest to hit Kannada TV, who started acting with a minor role in a teleserial while she was still pursuing her studies, and later returned to complete her graduation from Dayanand Sagar College.

Spoorthy Gowda is also an engineering graduate and now an actress, even Milana Nagaraj has an engineering degree in computer science. Milana always felt that education was a primary focus and she eventually took up modelling and acting. Another model-turned actress in Sandalwood, Kavya Shetty is an engineer too.