Actress Meghana Gaonkar Gets PhD: University of Mumbai Accepts Her Thesis

G S Kumar

Noted Kannada actress Meghana Gaonkar has been awarded doctorate by the University of Mumbai for her thesis “The metamorphosis of literature into cinema : A study in Adaptation.”
Meghana, who has over 15 Kannada movies to her credit, started working on the project from 2016 itself. She registered her name with the university in 2019.

“It’s the fruit of almost a decade of hard work,” says Meghana, who shared her happy moments with me over the phone yesterday.
It’s just a fight for time. She had to attend shooting, travel to Mumbai to meet his guide regularly and in between make time for study. “I passed all the hurdles and got my doctorate which was my dream,” says Meghana.

A few months back, at a breakfast, Meghana showed her original copy of the thesis which weighed nearly 5 kg. She was confident that she would get the doctorate by early 2025.
About a week back, Meghana called me and shared how she did well in viva. “I was very confident in answering all their questions. The panel was also happy with my replies.”

The doctorate is a feather in Meghana’s cap. She is the second actress, after Jayamala, in the Kannada film industry, to get a doctorate by submitting a thesis.