Shobana Chandrakumar, gifted Bharatanatyam dancer cum actress, was born into a family of dancers committed to arts. Started learning dance at the age of three and trained under Bharatanatyam exponents, Chitra Visweswaran and Padma Subramaniam, the niece of famous Tranvancore Sisters (Lalitha, Padmini, Ragini), with her vibrant performance and stage presence attracts and holds the attention of the audience. The endowed beauty debuted with the Malayalam film 'April 18' (1984) and has done films in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi. Founder of the art school Kalarpana in Chennai, she is an active performer of many music and dance festivals in India and abroad. For her fine dedication to the classical art form, Shobana was honoured with the coveted award Padmashree as well as other awards including Natya Ratna, Natya Jothi, Natya Mayuri, Ugadi Purskhar etc. As an actress she has received two National Awards in 1993 for 'Manichitrathazhu' and in 2002 for 'Mitr My Friend', Film Critics Award, Film Fare Awards etc.