 She gained popularity in Malayalam cinema and later married Kannada actor-politician Ambareesh and has a son Abhishek Gowda.In March 2019, Sumalatha announced that she would seek election for Lok Sabha from Mandya constituency of Karnataka as an independent candidate.On May 23, 2019, Sumalatha won against Nikhil Kumaraswamy by a margin of more than 1.25 lakh votes in the Lok Sabha election.