Oh my god. I’m so thrilled to see you. Do you know, I have named my daughter Gombe , after you?’ Neha Gowda, popularly known as Gombe or Shruti from Lakshmi Baramma , a popular television serial on Colours Kannada, was taken aback when a lady came up to her car, drenched from head to toe after walking in torrential rain, just to tell her that she is an ardent fan of Neha.
“She was standing outside my car, drenched, banging on my window to catch my attention. I kept telling her that she should come inside the car but she was so excited to see me that I couldn’t dissuade or interrupt her. There was another time when I was in a mall and people walked up to me to tell me that they want a daughter like Gombe. It’s so overwhelming when this happens,” she says. After wrapping up shoot for Lakshmi Baramma , Neha was on the sets of a Tamil serial when I phoned her for an interview.
Neha’s tryst with television was a rather reluctant one. “I never thought it was my cup of tea. There was no seriousness when I used to go to the set while shooting for my first serial Deepavu Ninnade Gaaliyu Ninnade . But my father was keen that I continue acting,” says the 24-year-old actor. Little did she know then that she would soon become a household name, a person people would aspire to follow.
This was also a time when Neha was finishing her B.Com degree. “I wanted to become a fashion designer actually and had sort of decided that television was not meant for me. But then Lakshmi Baramma came along. The director was so friendly and the character of Gombe was unique. So, I couldn’t say no.”
Lakshmi Baramma , touted as one of the popular shows of Colours Kannada (erstwhile ETV Kannada) is the story of a love triangle. Chandan and Shruti (Neha) are in love with each other. A chance encounter in a temple leads to a wedding between Chandan and Lakshmi (Lacchi), a girl from a small village. Soon after the wedding, Lakshmi runs away and is later discovered by Shruti or Gombe, who develops a special bond with her. What happens to this rather complicated and bizarre story forms the rest of the ongoing serial. Does Shruti discover that Chandan is married to Lacchi? Will Lacchi tell Shruti that she is actually married to Shruti’s lover? 999 episodes later, one is still waiting to know what will happen to this triangle.
“What I like about Gombe is that she is straight-forward, modern, sensitive and has her heart in the right place. And that perhaps explains why people like her so much too. Even I find her character quite similar to the real me,” says Neha.
And what does she think about the use of ‘prototype characters’ in serials- like the ‘gooder than good daughters-in law’, the ‘evilest of evil mothers-in-law’ etc., some of whom find a place in Lakshmi Baramma too? “What is a marker of a good person? To show a good person, you need to juxtapose him or her with a bad person. Isn’t that how life is? Are we all good and right all the time? Yes, sometimes the serials show the extremes…but that’s only to show the different shades of people…” she says.
How does the world of television work? How much of the script is ready for a serial that often crosses 1000-2000 episodes?
“Generally, they don’t write a story as such. They have sketches of different characters. Yes, some part of the story is written. But generally, based on competition from other serials, TRP ratings, the kind of response from audiences etc, they develop the story gradually.”
Is there an influence from the Hindi serials? “Umm… earlier there wasn’t. Stories were more rooted in our landscape and context. Now, I do see some influence. There is a certain emphasis on showing rich houses and fancy lifestyles. The make-up and costumes have become extravagant…”
A regular TV serial shoot schedule for a month is a gruelling one with back-to-back shoots. “We have to cover 26 episodes in a month. Sometimes, we shoot 9-12 scenes in a day. It depends on the director and the crew’s speed as well.”
Neha works in 12-hour shifts and says she hasn’t met her parents in over 15 days. “It is up to the actor to take up as many serials as he or she wants. I felt I could manage my time between two serials. But it comes at the cost of missing out on time with my family.”
With roughly 1000 back-to-back episodes, does it feel like there is little difference between Neha and Gombe now? How stressful is it to lead two lives day in and day out? “It is inevitable that a part of Gombe will seep into Neha and vice versa. There was a phase in the serial when Lacchi and Gombe have a fight and Gombe went into depression as a result of that. It had a huge impact on me. I would sit alone during lunch breaks on the set and not talk to anyone. I had to slowly bring myself out of it,” reveals Neha.
She adds that while characters like Gombe get appreciation even outside their reel lives, the baddies are in for terrible insults if they are ever seen outside. “It is so scary to play the role of a villain. People don’t mince words for some of my co-actors. That’s how much of an impact these serials have. The characters live beyond their show timings.”
