She has been essaying the role of ‘Lakshmi’ or ‘Chinnu’ for over three years, in one of the most popular TV soaps on the Kannada small screen. Now, the lead actress is busy with back-to-back Kannada films — Srinivasa Kalyana and First Love.
A classical dancer-turned-actor, Kavitha Gowda talks about her small screen image and how it has helped her shine brighter on the big screen, her journey and an incessant desire to do more unique roles, and much more.
“Incidentally, in both films, I play the love interest, but in Srinivasa Kalyana, the role is more a love story in a school setting, whereas in First Love, the role is partly based on a real life incident — It is a detailed description of a girl who had never fallen in love and finally does. It a story about how she faces strong opposition from her family. Every family is different, and First Love talks about it with a different approach. She could have easily taken the wrong path,” explains Kavitha.
In First Love she is paired opposite RJ-turned-actor Rajesh of the Love Guru radio programme fame. The climax of the film is based on a real life incident, directed by Ayushman.
A classical dancer Kavitha took to acting while pursuing her final year graduation in commerce. “Basically, I am a classical dancer. I happened to meet a couple of directors while performing programmes and later my contact reached the Lakshmi Baramma makers, who offered me the lead role. I was very frank with them about my acting skills. I knew nothing about acting beyond the requirements of a dancer. It is actually GK Satish Krishna and Prakash who infused confidence in me, and that is how I started acting,” she says, adding that she owes her success to her serial makers, her co-actors who helped her grow by sharing experiences, which eventually helped improve her acting skills.
Kavitha Gowda feels that as an actor there is hardly any difference between emoting on the big or small screen, one has to approach it with more depth. “It is the scope which makes a huge difference between the two,” she says.
While her small screen image has helped her to great extent, she adds, “The audience relates to me as ‘Chinnu’ and I just cannot start accepting bolder roles. Initially, I have to limit myself to certain roles as I am accepted as a homely girl. I do not intend to create a mind set and I would love to do more challenging roles in the future. In fact, many people think that I am too soft, but I am not like that in real life. I am a bold person and certainly not timid. However on the small screen, I always play the timid and shy character.”
As she concludes, she shares that it is her mother and sister, who have always been very supportive in all her endeavours. She hopes for bigger roles to play on the big screen in the future.
