Gopal Krishna hails from North Karnataka. “Though my father, Dhruvraj Deshpande, was an alumni of Neenasam and had a theatre troupe called Durvaranga, I was not interested in acting,” says the actor, who is today carving a niche for himself as a character artiste in Kannada cinema.
“When my father expired in 2005, I was at a crossroads of my life’s journey as to what I should do next. In Uttara Karanataka, most homes have attics. One day while cleaning our attic, I found the Neenasam prospectus and decided why not give it a shot for a year.”
Gopal applied for the 2005 batch and yet he was “not inspired to act. I was studying theatre and acting just out of curiosity.” Gopal soon became part of the Neenasam Tirugaata, travelling with plays from one place to another.
“It was then that I was bitten by the acting bug, when I saw the audience’s reaction to our work on stage.” Gopal said he made a living as part of Tirugaata and was involved in it for three years. “Then boredom kicked in. I was getting tired of all the travelling. Again, I was wondering what I should do and decided to shift to Bengaluru to give television a shot.”
As luck had it, as soon as Gopal landed in Bengaluru and built his contacts, he was offered a major role in the mega serial Putta Gowri Maduve . “That was when I discovered that though acting is the same, every medium has a different grammar. Theatre uses loud movements, while television needs subtle and prolonged emotions and cinema shorter expressions. The other thing, I discovered is that the camera captures everything about you — your body language and expressions, whether it is good or gaudy.”
After five years of Putta Gowri Maduve, Gopal laughs saying “boredom kicked in again and I started to look at Kannada cinema. My journey has been tough. Though acting is believed to be easy and simple, to depict a character in a simple manner is tough. One should never think he/she has mastered the craft as that will be the end of them. Even today, when I go on stage or stand in front of the camera, I am nervous.” Gopal’s recently-released films include Naaticharami , with Sruti Hariharan in the lead and Tayige Takka Maga with Suma Latha and Ajay Rao. His other films, which are almost ready for release are Mangalvaara Raja Dina with Chandan Acharya in the lead, Charlie 777 and Avane Sriman Narayana with Rakshit Shetty in the lead.
“The journey has not been easy. I think every actor goes through this struggling process, no matter how big a star he/she is today, there is a story of a struggle of 13 to 14 years behind each of them and I am not exempt from this. Nor do I look down upon myself for being a character artiste,” says Gopal.
In spite of his busy schedule, Gopal has joined hands with his friends, Achut Kumar, Neenasam Satish, Kiran Naik and Raghu Shivamogga, to start a theatre group called Theatre Tatkaal. “We come together often and stage plays and keep our passion for the stage alive too.”
