Vani Ganapathy Biography 
Vani Ganapathy is a trained bharatnatyam dancer and one among the leading names of this classical art form. She is also known as the first wife of actor Kamal Hassan. She has also done costume designing to many of Kamal Hassan’s movies when they were married. However, the couple split after ten years together, after Kamal Haasan began dating fellow actress Sarika. But that relationship also broke in the middle and Kamal Hassan is now in living together relationship with actress Gauthami.
Vani was only four years old when her mother inculcated her into this art form. Vani’s training began with Guru T. A. Rajalakshmi in Calcutta. Vani did her ‘arangettam’ (first stage performance) at the age of seven. Till then, art and dance have been her best companions. When her parents moved to Bombay, Vani too, shifted her training and she continued her formal training under nattuvanars of the same bani Gurus Mahalingam Pillai, Govindaraja Pillai and Kalyanasundaram. At a younger age, she used to perform on stage along with her sister Meera, who was also a classical dancer. Combination of Vani and Meera was always accompanied by their mother Indubala Ganapathy as a vocalist and their dance sequences were wonderfully choreographed by Kalyanasundaram.
During middle 70’s, when Doordarshan had just begun to telecast, she hosted a program based on four forms of Indian classical dances. The program titled ‘The rich heritage’ was Doordarshan's entry at the BLUE DANUBE FESTIVAL in Europe. It was later telecasted in BBC as well. Later she moved to Chennai, motherland of Bharatnatyam. She began to perform widely in many live concerts and since 1986 she began to deliver solo performances as well. She moved to Bangalore, reworked on choreography and gave new levels to this art form.
Being one among the top Bhartnatyam dancers of India, she has toured many foreign countries as well. It includes countries like Middle East, Australia, Singapore, Malaysia, China, Japan and London. Vani runs a dance academy 'Sanchari' where she trains students who are interested in learning Bharatnatyam. Once she has acted as Jury of the Indian Panorama for the International Film Festival and has served Censor Board Committee and the Doordarshan Committee as well.
Published: N/A
Updated: November 29, 2014
