Bengaluru: Two months ago, when news broke that former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda’s grandson and former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil Gowda would be making his acting debut, it made headlines, since the film was being made at a budget of nearly Rs 60 crore. Now, while the actor has been busy with acting and fighting lessons, travelling to places like Vietnam for training, before his debut film with Puri Jagannadh kicks off, news of his engagement has generated a lot of buzz. Nikhil has been in love with college-mate Swathi Gowda, daughter of film producer KCN Mohan and director Poornima Mohan, for a while and the two formalized their relationship this week. Sources hint that the couple plans to tie the knot in a few months. They met at Sri Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain College.
Incidentally, Nikhil will not be the first actor to flaunt a ‘taken’ tag before his debut film releases. There have been many actors, both in Sandalwood and outside, who have tied the knot prior to the release of their first film. Stars in Kannada like Shivarajkumar and Raghavendra Rajkumar were married when their first films released. Similarly, Bollywood has had married actors going on to be big stars, like Shah Rukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan and Aamir Khan, for example. Hrithik Roshan, though, got married the same year his debut film released, after its success.
In the south, Mammootty’s son Dulquer Salmaan had his debut film release after his wedding. Producer-turned-actor Udhayanidhi Stalin also made his acting debut with the wedded tag. R Madhavan might have had a couple of offbeat releases, but his mainstream Tamil debut happened despite him being married.
Interestingly, a married woman can hardly manage to find people willing to cast her, especially if she is looking at making a debut with that tag. Though, there have been exceptions like Chitrangda Singh, Suchitra Sen, Rakhee Gulzar and Moushumi Chatterjee.
BOLLYWOOD Shah Rukh Khan Married: 1991 Debut film: 1992
SANDALWOOD Shivarajkumar Married: 1985 Debut film: 1986
MOLLYWOOD Dulquer Salmaan Married: 2011 Debut film: 2012
TOLLYWOOD Venkatesh Married: 1985 Debut film: 1986
