Filmfare Award-winning actor Samyukta Hornad who is enjoying the international success of her Kannada film Dayavittu Gamanisi is living her dream—she is filming with a dog for one of her upcoming projects. An ardent animal lover, who is also a part of various NGOs, Samyukta comes from a close-knit family in Bengaluru.
Samyukta’s parents wanted her to be a singer and she was duly enrolled in singing classes. She would cycle to her classes and would make friends with all the stray pups and cats. “There were times I used to take dogs and cats to my singing class and my teacher would want to kick me out,” she giggles. She would also come home with random strays and keep them in her backyard. Samyukta would get along better with her four-legged friends and they made her world and inner circle.
She once rescued two pups—one of which eventually died and the other grew up to be her pet ‘Gunda’, who makes quite a statement on her Instagram account. “Nobody has taught me so much as much as Gunda,” she shares.
Today, she is associated with multiple NGOs pursuing her passion for animals. Animal therapy, she says, is a big centrepiece of the film she’s currently shooting for at Hassan in Karnataka. While her love for dogs keeps her busy, she is also involved with horses. She is working on bringing down smuggling with the help of horses.
“By rescuing or raising a pet we only think we are helping them, but that’s just the beginning. You see the world differently. It’s changed me so much. I want people to feel what I feel,” she says.
As a brand ambassador of Watchers India Trust—a wild animals and birds trust, working with elephants and tigers mostly in Karnataka—she put together a bio-doversity wall, which is a like an apartment complex for birds. It has been fitted with speakers with bird sounds that attract birds.
On acting and how animals help her, she says, “People at award ceremonies keep talking about acting theory, deconstruction, concept, method. But I see a play, life, I see food and I see my pets, and I learn what needs to be learnt as an actor. I stay close to emotions that I feel in animals.”