SHOBANA

Shobana Chandrakumar born on 21 March 1966 known as Shobana is an Indian actress and Bharatnatyam dancer. She was born to Anandam and Chandrakumar, in Kerala. She is the niece of Travancore Sisters Lalitha, Padmini and Ragini, all of whom were renowned of their skill in classical Indian dance. The veteran actress Sukumari is her paternal aunt. Shobana is single and involved in her dance school as well as her creative pursuit’s full time. Recently, she has adopted a six months old baby girl and named her as Anantha Narayani.

Shobana made her debut in the Malayalam motion picture, at the age of 18 in the year 1984. The same year she entered the Tamil film industry. She was among the popular lead actresses in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu and Kannada films during the 1980’s and 90’s. Shobana won the National Filmfare Award for Best Actresses twice, for her performance in the movies, Manichithrathazhu (1993) and Mitr, My Friend (2002).

In the year 2006, Government of India honored Shobana with the Padma Shri for her contributions towards the arts. In 1994, Shobana opened a school for classical Bharatnatyam dance in Chennai. The aim of the school was to organize annual festivals throughout India. This includes performances of nationally and globally known artists to help to raise funds that will be ploughed back to train the talented artists who are financially insecure. It also extends its support to the handicapped and environmental movement.