Cinematographer Santosh Sivan's recommendation lands the newbie in Priyadarshan's film

Call it being at the right place at the right time. Akshara Gowda, the newbie from South, is gearing up for her Bollywood debut in a Priyadarshan film and that too in a leading role. However, a few months ago, she was literally unknown and wasn't thinking of getting into Hindi showbiz!

Turns out Akshara wasn't very keen on continuing as an actor either even after making her South Indian debut in 2011. However, an audition done for fun landed her a cameo in the Tamil film Thuppakki directed by A R Muguradoss.

Akshara feels that it changed the course of her life. `I'm a great believer in destiny. I just happened to accompany a friend who was auditioning for the film and asked me to audition as well. I just did it for the heck of it and landed a tiny role in the action thriller,` she says.


As luck would have it, Santosh Sivan who was the cinematographer for the film suggested Akshara's name to director Priyadarshan who incidentally was looking for a female lead to cast in his film. As a result, the dusky beauty from Bangalore is all set to star opposite Jackky Bhagnani who himself is just three-films-old.

`I had no plans to become a full-fledged actor. But Sivan sir liked my face and performance in that small role and even recommended me to Priyan sir who readily took notice of me,` signs off Akshara.