Bharatanatyam is an Indian classical dance form that originated in India. It is a classical dance form recognized by the Sangeet Natak Akademi, and expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas, of Hinduism and Jainism.
Meena Durairaj, known professionally as Meena, is an Indian actress who predominantly works in South Indian films as well as Hindi cinema. She is a trained Bharatanatyam dancer. Meena has acted in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Hindi films She is one of the most sought after actresses in the South Indian film industry. In addition to acting, Meena is also a playback singer, TV judge, and occasional dubbing artist. She has received numerous accolades, including two Filmfare Awards South, three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, two Nandi Award for Best Actress and Cinema Express Awards. In 1998, she was honoured with the Kalaimamani Award by Government of Tamil Nadu.
Rukmini Devi Arundale was an Indian theosophist, dancer and choreographer of the Indian classical dance form of Bharatanatyam, and an activist for animal welfare.
Manichitrathazhu is a 1993 Indian Malayalam-language epic psychological horror film directed by Fazil, written by Madhu Muttam, and produced by Swargachitra Appachan. The film stars Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi and Shobana in addition to Nedumudi Venu, Innocent, Vinaya Prasad, K.P.A.C.Lalitha, Sridhar, K.B. Ganesh Kumar, Sudheesh, Thilakan and others in supporting roles. The story is inspired by a tragedy that happened in an Ezhava tharavad, the Alummoottil meda, located at Muttom, belonging to a central Travancore Channar family, in the 19th century. The writer of the film, Madhu K Panicker or Madhu Muttam, is a member of the Alummoottil Tharavad.
Divyaa Unni is an Indian former actress and classical dancer of Indian origin who teaches various forms of dance such as Bharathanatyam, Kuchipudi and Mohiniyattom. As an actress, she mainly appeared in Malayalam language films, in addition to few Tamil, Telugu and Kannada language films too.
Tanjore Balasaraswati, also known as Balasaraswati, was an Indian dancer, and her rendering of Bharatanatyam, a classical dance style originated in the South Indian state of Tamil Nadu, made this style of dancing well known in different parts of India and many parts of the world.
Padma Subrahmanyam, is an Indian classical Bharata Natyam dancer. She is also a research scholar, choreographer, teacher, Indologist and author. She is famous in India as well as abroad; several films and documentaries have been made in her honor by countries such as Japan, Australia and Russia. She is well known as the developer and founder of the dance form Bharata Nrithyam.
Sangeetha Krish (née Adamalayan) is an Indian actress, dancer, television presenter and reality show judge who predominantly appears in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films in supporting roles to character roles. She is known as Rasika in Malayalam movie industry. Making her acting debut in the mid-1990s, Sangeetha is best known for her performances in the films Khadgam (2002), Pithamagan (2003), Uyir (2006), Dhanam (2008) and Masooda (2022).
Amala Akkineni is an Indian actress, Bharatanatyam dancer, and activist. She has predominantly worked in Tamil films, in addition to Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada-language films. She was a leading actress in the Tamil film industry from 1986 to 1992 and has appeared in many blockbusters in Tamil and other languages. She has won two Filmfare Awards South, namely Best Actress – Malayalam for the 1991 film Ulladakkam and Best Supporting Actress – Telugu for the 2012 film Life Is Beautiful. Amala is the co-founder of Blue Cross of Hyderabad, a non-government organisation (NGO) in Hyderabad, India, which works towards the welfare of animals and preservation of animal rights in India.
Swapnasundari is an Indian dancer, an exponent of Kuchipudi and Bharata Natyam, a choreographer and a vocalist.
Roja Ramani is an Indian actress who predominantly worked in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu films. She was a child actor and her debut movie was Bhakta Prahlada (1967) for which she received National Film Award for Best Child Artist. She was popular during the 1970s and early 1980s and has acted in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Odia movies. She worked in 400 films as a dubbing artiste. She is an active member of BlueCross and is involved in several social service activities.
Vannadil Pudiyaveettil Dhananjayan and Shanta Dhananjayan, together known as the Dhananjayans, are an Indian dancing couple who were awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2009.
Urmila Sathyanarayana is an Indian classical dancer of bharatanatyam.
Padmini Ramachandran was an Indian actress and trained Bharatanatyam dancer, who acted in over 250 Indian films. She acted in Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu and Russian language films. Padmini, with her elder sister Lalitha and her younger sister Ragini, were called the "Travancore sisters".
Kalanidhi Narayanan was an Indian dancer and teacher of Indian classical dance form of Bharatnatyam, who was the early non-devadasi girl to learn the dance form and perform it on stage in the 1930s and 1940s. After a brief career in the 1940s, she returned to dance in 1973 and became a notable teacher of abhinaya.
Sridhar is an Indian actor in the Kannada film industry, and also a dance scholar, performer and choreographer, trained in Bharatanatyam. He also holds a degree in engineering. Sridhar is married to Anuradha, also a Bharatanatyam dance performer; both have performed for many dance shows as a duo. He received doctorate( D.Litt) for his thesis on Socio Cultural aspects of the male dancer in Bharatanatyam form the Kannada University, Hampi ( 2015)
Kumari Kamala is an Indian dancer and actress. Initially featured as a child dancer, Kamala appeared in almost 100 Tamil, Hindi, Telugu and Kannada films throughout her career. In the 1970s, she became a teacher of the Vazhuvoor style of dance in which she specialises.
Kalamandalam Kshemavathy is a Mohiniyattam dancer from Thrissur, Kerala. She is an alumna of the Kerala Kalamandalam. She joined the institute when she was ten. After completion of the course, she undertook advanced training in Bharata Natyam under Muthuswamy Pillai and Chitra Visweswaran, and in Kuchipudi under Vempati Chinna Satyam, but chose to remain within the Mohiniyattam tradition.
Raghuram was an Indian dance choreographer, who choreographed more than a thousand songs in Indian films across various languages. He was born into a Tamil Brahmin Iyer family and is the grandson of actor Krishnaswami Subrahmanyam.
Madras Kadiravelu Saroja, known as Puliyur Saroja, was an Indian classical dancer, known for her expertise, as an exponent and as a teacher, in the classical dance form of Bharatanatyam. The Government of India honored her, in 2011, with the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, for her services to the field of art and culture.
