Padmini Ramachandran Biography 
Padmini Ramachandran was an accomplished classical dancer, teacher and choreographer from south India. Born in Mavelikara, Kerala she was settled in Bangalore, Karnataka. She was a film actress too, who has acted in Malayalam, Tamil, Hindi and English movies. She played the role of a dance teacher in Oscar award winning film – Life of Pie. As a Bollywood actress, she is known for playing a courtesan named Bahar in Raj Kapoor starrer Dil Hi To Hai, released in 1963. The evergreen hit of Manna Dey - "Laaga Chunri Mein Daag" was pictured on this legendary dancer. She was credited with the name - Padmini Priyadarshini in those days. She passed away on January 17, 2016 at the age of 71. She was residing at Rama Murthy Nagar.
She was born and brought up in Chennai to Malayali couple. She took formal lessons of classical dance from the famous Vazhuvoor B. Ramaiyah Pillai at Chennai. As a film actress, her debut happened with the film ‘Bhakta Prahlada’. Later she got opportunity to work with many legendary actors of silver screen – Raj Kapoor, NTR etc. She acted in over 50 movies belonging to Kannada, Telugu and Hindi languages. Iruvar Ullam (Tamil) and Narthanasala (Telugu) are her noted appearances as a dancer. After marriage she quit films. She was married to Ramachandran from Thalassery and the couple had three sons and one daughter.
A recipient of many honours and recognitions, Karnataka Government honoured her with Karnataka Kalasree, Rajolsava and Kendra academy awards. Nritya Ratna from Goa Government and Bharata Shinkaram from Chennai Music Academy are other major honours. To start a dance school at Karnataka, government sanctioned her land at Hoisala Nagar where she started the institute, ‘Natya priya’ which became famous across the state. When Karnataka education board was formed by state government in 1996, she headed the organization.
Published: N/A
Updated: January 20, 2016
