'Can't bear the pain of rejection again'

If you put makeup on me and place me in front of the camera, there’s no stopping me,” says Anushree, a popular face on Kannada television. With a smile that never seems to leave her lips, bubbly, vivacious nature and a tendency to talk non-stop, the TV anchor-turned-actress is a regular fixture at Sandalwood events, keeping audiences entertained. As she prepares for the release of her second Kannada film, Ring Master, Anushree speaks to BT about growing up in Mangaluru with a single mom, getting into showbiz and more. Excerpts...
The pain of a broken family... I am basically from Mangaluru, the older of two children of a single mom. My parents separated when we were very young and my dad left us, never to return or even stay in touch. I often saw my parents fighting. But as is the case with most young girls, a dad is always their first hero and so, I idolized my father as well. I was quite affected when we never heard from him thereafter. My mother, however, never let us feel his absence. She worked hard to bring us up and taught me and my brother the importance of being able to stand on our own feet. Most importantly, though, she always told me that irrespective of the issues in your personal life, one should never let work be affected and that is something that I follow to the T even today. What such a childhood has done to me, though, is that I am wary of getting into a relationship. I cannot bear the pain of rejection again. So every time my mother brings up the topic of marriage, I just tell her that it is not yet the right time for it.
First tryst with showbiz... Seven to eight years ago, I got the opportunity to work for a local channel run by music director Gurukiran’s brother, Shivsharan Shetty, in Mangaluru. While there, I was called to audition for a Bengaluru-based Kannada GEC, which I got into. They asked me to move to Bengaluru, but back then, an anchor made just `250 per episode and I was not sure how to make ends meet. But then I decided to make the move, and see if I would sink or sail through. Over the next few years, I did the rounds of other Kannada GECs, anchoring smaller shows and doing corporate shows on the side. My big break came a good four years later, when I hosted Comedy Khiladi. There’s been no looking back since.
The move to the big screen... During my time on TV, I had won a dance reality show and spent nearly 80 days on the first season of Kannada Bigg Boss. Both these programmes worked well for me, as I got my first film offer, Benkipatna, after that. The movie did not do well commercially, but was appreciated by critics. Not much later, Arun Sagar came to me with the script of Ring Master. While the clincher for me was Arun himself, what I also liked was that it did not seem like a regular commercial movie.
Learning to be quiet
Those who know me know that I am quite a motor-mouth, so it was a challenge getting into the character of Madhu in Ring Master, as she doesn’t speak much. She always keeps to herself, living in her own world. I used to get jealous of the other artists who had lots of dialogues and asked the director to give me some lines. But then I do get some dialogues in the second half, when it is revealed that she is actually quite a strong character.