She is everyone's favourite GOMBE

It’s been close to five years since this hudugi has charmed television audiences as the favourite doll on the Kannada small screen. She essays the character of gombe or doll in Lakshmi Baramma. While the two other lead actors in the serial kept changing, she remained the constant gombe, and even in Kalyana Parasu in Tamil. Neha Gowda wishes she can continue playing her two favourite characters till the last episodes. But she is also in a dilemma, as she is getting married next month, and will be setting overseas! The youngest daughter of national award winning make-up artist, MK Ramakrishna, her elder sister is popular Kannada film actress Sonu Gowda. Neha speaks with Bengaluru Chronicle about being that much-favoured doll on TV, and much more.

“Despite coming from a family close to the acting profession, neither my father or my elder sister influenced my choice of career. While I was in the last year of high school, I started acting in local theatre productions. But, I never enjoyed it, and felt that it was not my cup of tea. But my friends and family members pushed me to act, after seeing me perform. During college, I took up the TV serial Anuvada. I decided not to act after it was over. But, I got an offer for another serial titled Deepavu Ninnade Gayilu Ninnade, but here again, I was not that interested in pursuing acting,” Neha Gowda recalls.

It was only when Neha started working in Lakshmi Baramma, which also gave her a big break and immense popularity as the gombe, did she fall in love with acting.

“It’s been five years since I started playing gombe. It is actually my character that has kept my love for acting intact. I chose to stick with it despite the other two lead actors in the serial changing several times. Even my Tamil serial Kalyana Parasu is close to my heart. I play a similar character to that of Lacchi in the Kannada soap which has given me so much love and appreciation. I could not take up films, as I was very committed to serials,” Neha says. On her dilemma, she mulls, “My marriage is fixed, and after that, there are plans to settle abroad. I am facing a difficult question in life — whether to continue acting till the last episodes of the two serials or not. I did a few short films earlier but stuck to my first love — gombe, and moreover no good scripts came by,” Neha says. For now though, before matrimony beckons, she is happy doing anything related to acting, be it dance or just performance. And when she is not working, staying fit and diving into the pool and sticking to her workout keeps her on her toes.