Shobana

Shobana Chandrakumar Pillai (born 21 March 1970) is an Indian actress and Bharatanatyam dancer. She acts predominantly in Malayalam films along with Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada and English films. She has won two National Film Awards, one Kerala State Film Awards, two Filmfare Awards South with 14 Nominations for Best Actress Category in three different south Indian languages. She was honoured with Kalaimamani by Tamil Nadu State Government in 2011 and numerous other awards. In a career spanning more than 40 years, Shobana has starred in 230 films across several languages.

She won the National Film Award for Best Actress twice for her performances in the Malayalam film ''Manichitrathazhu'' (1993) and the English film ''Mitr, My Friend'' (2001).

Shobhana is also a Bharatanatyam dancer who received her training under Chitra Visweswaran and Padma Subrahmanyam. She emerged as an independent performer and choreographer in her twenties and currently runs a dance school, ''Kalarpana'', in Chennai. In 2006, the Government of India honoured her with the Padma Shri for her contributions towards the arts.

In 2013, she received Kerala Sangeetha Nataka Akademi Fellowship, also known as ''Kalarathna'', for her contributions to the performing arts. She received honorary doctorates from Vinayaka Mission's Research Foundation in 2018, Dr. MGR Educational and Research Institute in 2019 and Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit in 2022. Provided by Wikipedia