A 26-year-old Kannada television actress, C M Nandini, was found dead in her paying guest accommodation in Bengaluru in the early hours of Monday, with police pointing to intense family pressure to abandon her acting career for a secure government job as a likely cause.
A Tragic Discovery in Kengeri
The grim discovery was made at the Insta Living PG in Mylasandra, Kengeri, around 3:45 am on Monday. According to the Kengeri police, Nandini had locked herself in room number 202 after returning from a visit to her boyfriend Puneet's home around 11:23 pm on Sunday night. When Puneet could not reach her on the phone, he alerted the PG manager, Kumar, and the in-charge, Kiran, by 11:50 pm.
After getting no response from her room, the officials broke open the door to find Nandini's body. Kiran immediately dialled the emergency helpline 112. Police personnel who arrived at the spot declared her dead. Her mother, Basavarajeshwari, a government school teacher, was informed and reached the PG with relatives by 8 am.
The Dream Versus Family Expectations
Nandini's journey into acting was one of passion clashing with conventional expectations. The elder daughter of S Mahabaleshwar, a government school teacher who passed away in 2021, and G R Basavarajeshwari, also a teacher from Kotturu in Vijayanagara district, Nandini had moved to Bengaluru for education.
After her pre-university in Ballari in 2018, she enrolled in a BE course at RR Institute in Hesaraghatta. However, her heart lay elsewhere. She stopped attending college regularly and instead pursued acting training in Rajarajeshwari Nagar. Since 2019, she had been working in various Kannada television serials while living in different PG facilities across the city.
The central conflict emerged after her father's death. In 2023, she was offered a compassionate appointment, a government job, at the taluk office. Her family strongly wished for her to accept this stable position. However, Nandini was determined to follow her dreams in the acting world and refused the job, a decision that reportedly created significant familial discord.
Diary Entries Reveal Inner Turmoil
The police investigation took a decisive turn with the recovery of Nandini's personal diary. Entries in the diary explicitly expressed her deep distress and mental anguish over the relentless pressure from her family to quit acting and take up the government job. This written account has become a crucial piece of evidence for the police to understand her state of mind.
Her mother, in her statement to the police, indicated that no one else was suspected of involvement in her daughter's death. She attributed the tragic outcome to the ongoing family conflict over Nandini's career choices, effectively confirming it as a case of suicide.
The Kengeri police have registered a case of unnatural death and are continuing their investigation into the precise circumstances. Nandini had moved to the Insta Living PG only in August 2025, seeking a space of her own as she navigated her professional path amidst personal pressures.
This incident has cast a spotlight on the immense pressure young individuals, especially women, often face in choosing between personal aspirations and family expectations of traditional, 'secure' careers in Indian society.
