From a tomboy dressed in shorts to a heroine oozing sex appeal in sarees, it's been an eventful journey, says veteran actress Jayanthiu00a0

Actress Jayanthi flummoxed reporters when she said she thinks of goddess Chamundeshwari as her mother, Ganesha as her brother and Venkateshwara as her husband!

In reply to a question about three people she liked the most, she remarked that she loved and worshipped the three deities.

She was the first among Kannada actresses to participate in Amrutha Maathu Manthana, a weekly interactive programme, organised by film journalists in the city.

She set the tone for the evening with a walk down memory lane, reliving the highlights of her 40-year film career. "I had gone to watch a dance being filmed at a studio when director YR Swamy noticed me. He came to our house and offered me a role in the Kannada film, Jenu Goodu," she said.

By the time she turned fourteen, she had acted with NTR in a couple of Telugu films. "I have also acted in Tamil, Malayalam, Marathi and Hindi movies," she said.

'I threw my books in a pigsty'

Jayanthi, who confessed that she was too much of a coward to lie to anyone because she feared the repercussions, said her mother was never one to excuse bad behaviour. "I still remember how amma punished me when I bunked classes and went for Nageshwar Rao's Devdas. In my excitement to go for the film, I had dumped my bag and books in a pigsty near my school! When my mother got to know of it, she was livid. She beat me with her heavy silver key bunch until my back bled," recounted the actress.u00a0

There was a role reversal of sorts when the actress quizzed the reporters in jest. "Do you know my real name?" she asked. "I was named Kamala Kumari and my mother wanted me to become a dancer.

"Even before I was offered Jenu Goodu, I happened to visit Chennai with my mother when I was 12 years old. We went to NTR's house. He pampered me and asked in jest, 'Why don't you act in films?' None of us realised that his words would prove prophetic," says Jayanthi.