“It wouldn’t be wrong to say that dance has been the driving force behind every thing I’ve done. I was 5 years old when I first began to learn dance. After nearly 2 decades of learning, teaching and performing Bharatnatyam, I went on to learn Kathak, Mohinyattam and Kuchipudi among other forms.
It was a progressive journey of many years. What started as learning and replicating technicalities on a physical level slowly grew into mental and emotional inquisitiveness about the art form. That’s what pulled me to Chennai to pursue my Masters in Performing Arts, despite having graduated in Psychology. As long as it was a passion, no one really seemed to care, but once I decided to take it up professionally, it did raise a lot of eyebrows, especially in the extended family- something I’m grateful my parents shielded me from.
My masters course helped me understand and connect better with dance, not just internally, but also correlate religion, science, emotion and so much more with it. While dance taught me independence, I did a small content writing stint at a start up to get a hang of the hierarchical office structure. There I got the taste of media and was awestruck by its reach. One thing led to another and I landed the job of a TV presenter, while continuing to dance. It was after one such performance at the music launch of a film that I was noticed by Rajamouli Garu and signed for Baahubali, The Conclusion. It was a dance sequence and the amount of love that poured in right from the day of the release of the film was overwhelming and testing at the same time.

The more I felt convinced about what I was doing, the easier I found it to convince my audiences. Since the audience connects strongly with the people they see on screen, I found it important to stick to my true self. This realisation struck me after I recieved a great amount of love for my portrayal of Y.S Vijayamma in ‘Yatra’. I was dumbfounded.
As a dancer, I had one thing certain. I wouldn’t let go off dance or get carried away by the glitz and glam of the industry, something even other professionals adviced me. My experience, afterall, comes from playing characters in ballets and dance dramas. I was never trained to act. The stage experience that I recieved as a dancer has helped me understand the characters I play better.
Hence, even today, despite the shoots and the events and everything else, I continue to practice dance and teach dance at my academy. Afterall, I have only paved the way because of dance.”

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