Kala (choreographer)

Kala is an Indian choreographer who has worked in all the regional film industries and is the director of the Indian reality dance talent show, Maanada Mayilada – where she is one of the three judges.

A trained classical dancer, Kala, a school drop out, entered the film industry through the influence of her brother-in-law, the choreographer Raghuram. Making her debut as an assistant choreographer at the age of 12 in 1982, she got a break during the making of Punnagai Mannan starring Kamal Haasan and Revathi, as director K. Balachander suggested Kala fill in for the busy Raghuram. She was then chosen again by Balachandar as the lead choreographer for Pudhu Pudhu Arthangal (1989).

She has since worked in over 4000 songs in various languages including Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, Kannada, Oriya, Bengali, English, Italian and Japanese. She has referred to the "Kozhi Koovuthu Neramachu" song in Azhagan as one of her leading pieces of work, while she was also handed the opportunity to choreograph the Miss World 1996 Beauty Pageant held at Bangalore for which she received a special award of excellence. Moreover, she notes that a stage event in Malaysia featuring Prashanth and seven heroines, propelled her into fame. She was awarded the National Film Award for Best Choreography in 2000 for her folk dance sequeces in the Malayalam film, Kochu Kochu Santhoshangal. She became the first to start a cinematic dance school and along with her sisters helps manage five branches. Kala's merit is in popularising a peculiar dance form, cobbled together with borrowings from classical, Indian folk, bhangra and western steps. She also won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Choreographer for her work in Chandramukhi sasi kumar wrked in.

She has since gone to specialise in directing dance reality shows, notably Maanada Mayilada, which has finished nine seasons.

Kala was born into a family of seven girls and revealed that she was brought up in a one-room house during her childhood. An elder sister Jayanthi, started first in dancing and acted as heroine in two films – Uthiripookkal and Poottatha Pookkal. Kala’s second sister Girija, learned Bharatanatyam at Kalakshetra; and went to work with choreographers Thangam and later Raghuram, whom she married later, and also become an independent choreographer. Kala was the sixth daughter, while Brinda, a leading choreographer, is her youngest sister. One of her nephews, Prasanna Sujit, is another film choreographer.

Kala was previously married to UAE based businessman, Govindarajan, who is the brother of actress Sneha. Kala had initially shifted to Dubai after her marriage but problems prompted her to return to Chennai and take up choreographing again. The pair divorced, and soon after Kala and Brindha controversially made derogatory comments about Sneha's dancing ability to a magazine.

She got married to Mahesh in 2004 and has a son Vidyuth born in 2007.