Sudha Chandran dazzles dance lovers even after decades

Jeeth Yesudas

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Sudha Chandran is regarded as one of the finest Bharatanatyam dancers of our country who started her dancing career at a very early age. Although she hails from Thrissur, she was brought up in Mumbai. She was lucky enough to have started her training at the early age of 4 because of her mother’s interest. Her dance debut happened when she was 8. She became popular in the dancing circuit within a span of four years. When her career was peaking while leading a balanced student - dancer life, she met with an accident. At that point of time she was pursuing her pre-degree classes. That incident had a severe impact which resulted in below-knee amputation for her right leg.

Days of struggle

Drawing inspiration from her father’s words she decided to fight it out and show case that overcoming hardships is the successful way of leading life. It was when the whole world thought her future had ended even before it started, she proved them wrong. She made a comeback with the help of prosthetic Jaipur foot. Dr. Sethi who had conceptualized this prosthetic leg responded to her when she asked whether she could dance again. He said ‘Why Not?’. She went through her toughest days of her life. With utmost dedication and hard work she performed again after two years in Mumbai marking the comeback of a great dancer. During her comeback days she had to withstand severe pain after her performances. Many have drawn inspiration from this struggle. This phase of her life is sure to be a ray of hope for those who have come across something similar to this in life specially at a young age. Sudha herself said once that she could never ever relive or rewrite those two years again.

Cine-world

Sudha entered the world of cinema in early 80’s where she shot to fame with the Telugu movie ‘Mayuri’ (1984) which was remade to Hindi (Nache Mayuri) in 1986. She was the lead actress in both the versions. She received Special Jury Award during the 1985 National awards for her role in Mayuri. The film was special in many ways as it was based on her real life. The story portrayed the life of a dancer who fights back to re-enter into the world of dance after having met with an accident. Apart from Telugu & Hindi movies she has acted in Tamil, Malayalam, Gujarathi & Bengali movies.

Mini-screen presence

She enjoys a much wider fan base among the TV audience as she has acted in some of the most successful serials of its times like Kaahin Kissii Roz (Hindi). She has acted in Tamil & Hindi serials. A few of her famous works include K. Street Pali Hill(Hindi), Arasi(Tamil), Chandrakanta (Hindi), Hum Paanch(Hindi) , Jhilmil Sitaaron Ka Aangan Hoga (Hindi) and Thendral(Tamil). She was one of the most sought after TV star for character roles. She is active in many judging panels for reality shows in various channels. Super Dancer Junior in Amrita TV was the popular among them.

At Present

She is currently spearheading an academy Nache Mayuri. Ravikumar Dang, Sudha's husband is the executive director of the school. She is performing in many famous dance festivals and even hogged the limelight at 150th birth anniversary celebration of Rabindranath Tagore.

Her latest project is called Shakthi in which portrays various emotions of the Goddess. She performed this Ballet for the first time at Nagpur. She recently performed at Tagore Hall, Calicut (Kozhikode). She vowed the audience with ease where they were able to see glimpses of an outstanding dancer in different segments Nache Mayuri, Viswanayak, Sri Ramachandra and many more.


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