Protima Bedi

🪔 About

Protima Gauri Bedi (born Protima Gupta on October 12, 1948, in Delhi, India) was a prominent Indian model who underwent a profound transformation to become a celebrated Odissi dancer and cultural innovator. Her early life saw her family move from Delhi to Goa and then Mumbai, where she attended St. Xavier's College. By the late 1960s and early 1970s, she gained notoriety as a model, famously streaking on Juhu Beach in 1974 for the launch of Cineblitz magazine. A pivotal moment occurred in August 1975 when, at the age of 26, an Odissi dance recital in Mumbai deeply inspired her, leading her to abandon her modeling career to pursue classical dance. She rigorously trained under the legendary Odissi guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and further honed her expressive skills (abhinaya) with Guru Kalanidhi Narayanan of Madras. Protima Bedi quickly became an accomplished performer, giving recitals across the country. She established her first dance school, the Odissi Dance Centre, at Prithvi Theatre in Juhu, Mumbai, which was registered as a trust in May 1979. Her most enduring legacy is the founding of Nrityagram, a unique dance village near Hesaraghatta, Bangalore (now Bengaluru), Karnataka. She began building this residential gurukul in 1989, and it was formally inaugurated on May 11, 1990, by then-Prime Minister V.P. Singh. Nrityagram was conceived as India's first free dance gurukul, dedicated to various Indian classical dance forms and martial arts like Chhau and Kalaripayattu, aiming to revive the ancient guru-shishya tradition in a holistic environment. The village, designed by architect Gerard da Cunha, won the Best Rural Architecture award in 1991. In her later years, after the tragic suicide of her son Siddharth in 1997, Protima Bedi renounced public life, changed her name to Protima Gauri, and embarked on a pilgrimage to Kailash Mansarovar. She died in a landslide near Malpa, Pithoragarh, on August 18, 1998, at the age of 49, with her remains recovered days later. Her autobiography, "Timepass: The Memoirs of Protima Bedi," was posthumously published by her daughter Pooja Bedi in 2000. Nrityagram continues to thrive as an internationally renowned institution, carrying forward her vision for classical Indian dance.