Aditi Rao Hydari

🪔 About

Aditi Rao Hydari is an Indian actress with a strong background in Bharatanatyam, a classical Indian dance form. Born in Hyderabad, she was exposed to the classical arts from a young age. She began learning Bharatanatyam at the age of five, a choice she made herself. Hydari trained under the renowned dancer Leela Samson, developing her interest in the art form from the age of eleven. She became an integral part of Samson's dance group, Spanda, where she not only performed across India and internationally in various stage productions but also taught students. Her early career saw her in the lead role of a 19th-century devadasi (temple dancer) in her first film project, "Sringaram" (2004), a Tamil film directed by Sharada Ramanathan and produced by Bharatanatyam dancer Padmini Ravi. Despite her successful acting career, which includes performances in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam films, Hydari maintains a deep connection to Bharatanatyam. She continues to visit her guru, Leela Samson, in Chennai to rehearse whenever possible. In addition to dance, she also learned music from her mother, Vidya Rao, an acclaimed classical singer. While she is a proficient classical dancer, her primary public recognition is as an actress, and she is not widely considered a renowned guru or legend of Indian classical dance in the traditional sense of having founded a major institution or dedicated her life primarily to teaching and propagating the art form on a large scale. Awards & Honours: Screen Award for Best Supporting Actress (2011), IIFA Award for Best Supporting Actress (2018), SIIMA Award for Best Female Debut – Tamil (2017), Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu (2018).