Raghuram (1 May 1949 – 30 November 2013) was an Indian dance choreographer, who choreographed more than a thousand songs in Indian films across various languages. He was born into a

Tamil Brahmin Tamil Brahmins are an ethnoreligious community of Tamil-speaking Hindu Brahmins, predominantly living in Tamil Nadu, though they number significantly in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Karnataka, in addition to other regions of India, as wel ...

Iyer Iyers (also spelt as Ayyar, Aiyar, Ayer, or Aiyer) are an ethnoreligious community of Tamil-speaking Brahmin, Hindu Brahmins. Most Iyers are followers of the ''Advaita Vedanta, Advaita'' philosophy propounded by Adi Shankara and adhere to the ...

family and is the grandson of actor

Krishnaswami Subrahmanyam K. Subramaniyam (20 April 1904 – 7 April 1971), born Krishnasamy Subramaniyam, was an Indian film director of the 1930s and 1940s. Dancer Padma Subrahmanyam is his daughter. Biography Subramanyam was involved in the establishment of the T ...

Career

Raghuram began learning

Kathakali Kathakali ( ml, കഥകളി) is a major form of classical Indian dance. It is a "story play" genre of art, but one distinguished by the elaborately colourful make-up and costumes of the traditional male actor-dancers. It is native to the M ...

, aged five from prominent dance expert

Guru Gopinath Perumanoor Gopinathan Pillai, more popularly known as Guru Gopinath (24 June 1908 – 9 October 1987) was a well known actor-cum-dancer. He is well regarded as the greatest preserver of the dance tradition. He is a recipient of the Sangeet Natak ...

, and then in 1956, he switched to learning

Bharata Natyam Bharatanatyam () is a major form of Indian classical dance that originated in Tamil Nadu. It is one of the eight widely recognized Indian classical dance forms, and expresses South Indian religious themes and spiritual ideas, particularly of ...

under danseuse K. J. Sarasa. He learnt dance along with

J Jayalalithaa Jayaram Jayalalithaa (24 February 1948 – 5 December 2016) was an Indian politician and actress who served as Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for more than fourteen years over six terms between 1991 and 2016. From 9 February 1989 to 5 December 2 ...

, with the pair both having their arangetram (debut) in 1960. He debut in movies as a child actor in a movie

Padikkadha Medhai ''Padikkadha Medhai'' () is a 1960 Indian Tamil-language drama film directed and co-written by A. Bhimsingh. The film stars Sivaji Ganesan, S. V. Ranga Rao, Kannamba and Sowcar Janaki. It is a remake of the 1953 Bengali film ''Jog Biyog'', its ...

(1960). It was during a duet performance with Jayalalithaa that Raghuram was asked to assist dance director A. K. Chopra for an

M. G. Ramachandran Maruthur Gopalan Ramachandran (17 January 1917 24 December 1987), also popularly known as M.G.R., was an Indian politician, actor, philanthropist, and filmmaker who served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death in 1987 ...

movie. He then started out on his own in 1974 and went on to choreograph

Tamil Tamil may refer to: * Tamils, an ethnic group native to India and some other parts of Asia **Sri Lankan Tamils, Tamil people native to Sri Lanka also called ilankai tamils **Tamil Malaysians, Tamil people native to Malaysia * Tamil language, nativ ...

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

Malayalam Malayalam (; , ) is a Dravidian language spoken in the Indian state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Puducherry (Mahé district) by the Malayali people. It is one of 22 scheduled languages of India. Malayalam was des ...

and

Hindi Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

movies. He debuted choreographer in the Telugu film ''Kanne Vayasu''. He has worked on several films with

Kamal Haasan Kamal Haasan (born 7 November 1954) is an Indian actor, filmmaker, screenwriter, playback singer, television presenter and politician who works mainly in Tamil cinema and has also appeared in some Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada and Bengali l ...

, early on in his career, choreographing celebrated work in ''

Sagara Sangamam ''Sagara Sangamam'' () is a 1983 Indian Telugu-language dance film written and directed by K. Viswanath and produced by Edida Nageswara Rao. The film stars Kamal Haasan, Jaya Prada, Sarath Babu, S. P. Sailaja and Chakri Toleti. Upon release, t ...

'' (1983) about a classical dancer, and in the romantic Hindi film ''

Ek Duuje Ke Liye ''Ek Duuje Ke Liye'' () is a 1981 Indian Hindi romantic tragedy film directed by K. Balachander. A remake of Balachander's Telugu film ''Maro Charitra'', it stars Kamal Haasan and Rati Agnihotri as a pair of lovers from different families who ...

'' (1981). Raghuram also went on the direct the 1995 Bengali film, ''

Bhagya Debata ''Bhagya Debata'' ( God of destiny) is a 1995 Indian Bengali-language film directed by Raghuram, a dance choreographer in South Indian cinema, starring Mithun Chakraborty, Soham Chakraborty, Soumitra Chatterjee, Mamta Kulkarni, Rituparna Seng ...

'', starring

Mithun Chakraborty Mithun Chakraborty (born Gouranga Chakraborty; 16 June 1950) is an Indian actor, producer and politician who predominantly worked in Hindi and Bengali language films. He is a former Rajya Sabha Member of Parliament. He is the recipient of three ...

and

Rajinikanth Shivaji Rao Gaikwad (born 12 December 1950), known professionally as Rajinikanth, is an Indian actor, producer and screenwriter. In a career spanning over five decades, he has done 160 films that includes films in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Kannad ...

. He then featured alongside Kamal Haasan in ''

Dasavathaaram ''Dasavathaaram'' () is a 2008 Indian Tamil-language science fiction action film directed by K. S. Ravikumar. It stars Kamal Haasan, who also wrote the script, in ten distinct roles. Asin appears in two roles and Mallika Sherawat plays a subs ...

'' (2008) as Appa Rao, a comedy cop. In 2000, he began work on a film on friendship starring Abbas,

Vineeth Vineeth Radhakrishnan (born 23 August 1969) is an Indian actor, classical dancer, voice artist and choreographer who primarily works in Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu language films. He has also starred in a few Kannada and Bollywood films. He h ...

and his daughter Suja Raghuram, but the film was later shelved. In 2012, an event named ''Amma Appa Guru Deivam'' was held to felicitate Raghuram's fiftieth year in the film industry. The event, heralded a success by the media, featured dance performances from actors and speeches from other film personalities.

Personal life

Raghuram was born into an Iyer family and is the grandson of

, a Tamil film director of the 1930s, while his aunt

Padma Subrahmanyam Padma Subrahmanyam (born 4 February 1943, in Madras), is an Indian classical Bharata Natyam dancer. She is also a research scholar, choreographer, teacher, Indologist and author. She is famous in India as well as abroad; several films and docume ...

is a prominent classical dancer. Raghuram married Girija, another choreographer, and helped her sisters Jayanthi,

Kala Kala or Kalah may refer to: Religion Hinduism *Kāla, a Sanskrit word meaning ''time'' *Kāla, a Hindu deity of time, destiny, death and destruction closely related to Yama and Shiva. *Kalā, a Sanskrit word meaning ''performing arts'' * Kala Bo, ...

and Brindha make their breakthrough in the industry. He has two daughters, who are also involved in the film industry. His first daughter, Suja Raghuram, appeared in

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

and Malayalam language films while also being a prominent television actress.

Gayathri Raghuram Gayathri Raguram is an Indian politician and former actress who has worked in the South Indian film industry. Gayathri began her career as an actress in the 2001 Telugu film ''Repallelo Radha'' and after a career break, she began working as a ...

, his second daughter, has also appeared in films as an

actress An actor or actress is a person who portrays a Character (arts), character in a performance. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek ...

and a

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

Death

Raghuram died on 30 November 2013, following a heart attack at his

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

home.

Filmography

As actor

As director

As producer

Award

;

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards Tamil Nadu State Film Awards were given for excellence in Tamil cinema in India. They were given annually to honour the best talents and provide encouragement and incentive to the South Indian film industry by the Government of Tamil Nadu. The aw ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Raghuram Bharatanatyam exponents Tamil male actors Indian choreographers Indian film choreographers Male actors in Tamil cinema 2013 deaths 1949 births Performers of Indian classical dance 20th-century Indian dancers Kathakali exponents