Sudha Chandran

Sudha Chandran is a classic case of will power overcoming disability. Though she lost a leg in an accident in 1982, she rose above her tragedy and became an acclaimed Bharatanatyam dancer with the help of a prosthetic Jaipur leg.

She first came on the big screen to enact her own life story in filmmaker Ramoji Rao’s film Mayuri. This was remade in Hindi as Nache Mayuri and soon she began getting offers. But her film career never took off. She was reduced to playing the sister or the bhabhi.

Then she was offered the serial Saahil, where she was noticed again. She went on to anchor Shriman Shrimati, which was directed by Rajan Wagdhare. Wagdhare was so impressed with her wacky sense of humour that he repeated her in another serial, Kabhi Idhar Kabhi Udhar, opposite Shekhar Suman.

There followed a string of serials, but it was her character, Ramola Sikand, in Ekta Kapoor’s Kahin Kissi Roz that made her popular with today’s youth. "Classical dance is different from western dance," Sudha says. "Jhalak is more western. So I have to unlearn a lot of classical dance to adapt to this form."

Umashankar Naik is her choreographer partner.