If not for an injury, I would have been an athlete

When the upcoming Kannada film Buckaasuura hits screens, it marks Kavya Gowda’s transition from TV to the big screen. Viewers of Kannada serials will remember her from her shows Meera Madhava and Gandhari, both of which she did for more than 450 episodes. Interestingly, though, Kavya tells us that had it not been for a stray injury, she would have never been in showbiz.“I was a national-level athlete representing Karnataka in the 100-metre sprint. I was in Class 4 when I began training, which continued through my school days, as well as engineering, until I sustained an injury during a training session. The doctor told me that I had to give up running, which literally crushed me. I was so used to seeing my name appear in the media as an athlete. But then fate had other plans for me,” says Kavya.
Accompanying a friend to a Kannada TV serial audition, Kavya was stunned when she bagged the role. “I realized that it would be my new path to recognition. My family was OK with me taking up acting, provided I also focused on my education. So, I worked on the serials right through my graduation and MBA,” she says.
The offer to act in Buckaasuura came when she was still doing Gandhari. “The team, including director Navaneeth, met me and gave me a script narration. I liked my role, that of a lawyer, who is also lead actor Rohitt’s love interest. But more importantly, the story had me hooked. The fact that this was the same team behind Karvva was also a clincher,” says Kavya.
In the film, the actress got to share screen space with pretty much everyone on the cast, including Sadhu Kokila and Makarand Deshpande, but does not have any scenes with Crazy Star Ravichandran. “That is a big loss to have worked in a film with Ravi sir but not have shot together. The silver lining for me was that I was on set for some of his sequences, during which he spoke to me at length about acting in films. He was very encouraging and that is something I will cherish,” she says.