Raghuram

Raghuram Biography

Raghuram was a very famous choreographer who was equally successful in Bollywood as well as south Indian movies. He owns more than 1500 Bollywood songs in his credit as well as many chartbuster hits of Kamal Hassan like Salangai Oli and Punnagai mannan (Tamil) and Ek duje ke liye (Hindi), known for its beautiful songs and picturization. Raghuram is the grandson of K. Subramanyam, a renowned Tamil film director of the 1930s. His aunt Padma Subrahmanyam is a prominent classical dancer. His wife Girija whose sisters are Kala and Brinda are also choreographers. His daughters, Suja and Gayathri are actresses.

Raghuram hails from Tamil Nadu. He was born in the year 1949. He started learning Kathakali at the age of 5 from doyen of this art form, Kalamandalam Gopinath. Later he learnt Bharatanatyam under K. J. Sarasa. He learnt dance aside prominent figure of Tamil cinema and politics, Jayalalitha and the pair had their arangetram in 1960. After this duet performance, Jayalalitha offered him an opportunity in films to work as the assistant of choreographer, A. K. Chopra for an MGR movie. As an individual choreographer his career started in the year 1974 and has successfully worked in all south Indian languages as well as Hindi. He has given dance steps to the major hits of Kamal Hassan during his first phase in the industry during the decade of 1980’s.

In 1995 he directed a Bengali film, Bhagya Debata, starring Mithun Chakraborty, Mamta Kulkarni and Rajinikanth. The movie was dubbed and released in Hindi as Kranthikari. He made his acting debut with Kamal Hassan movie, Dasavatharam where he played the role of Appa Rao, a comedy cop.  Actress Khushbu Sundar and choreographer Kala are some of his disciples who have achieved success in the industry.

Published: N/A

Updated: December 13, 2013