Mallika Sarabhai

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Mallika Sarabhai is one of the most renowned Kuchipudi and Bharatanatyam dancers in India today. Multi-faceted Malika holds a MBA and a doctorate from IIM Ahmedabad and has experience in acting, film-making, editing and television anchoring.

Mallika is the daughter of reputed dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai and renowned scientist Vikram Sarabhai. She started to learn dancing when she was quite young and started her film career in parallel cinema, when she was just 15. Mallika played the role of Draupadi in the Peter Brook's movie The Mahabharata.

Mallika has won many accolades during her long career, the -French Palme d'Or being one of them, which she won for the Best Soloist Artist.

As well as a dancer, Sarabhai is a social activist. She, along with her mother, manages the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts located at Ahmedabad. She made headlines when she complained that the Narendra Modi government of Gujarat was harassing her due to her public criticism of their role during the 2002 riots; the government in late 2002 had accused her of human trafficking. The Gujarati government dropped the case in December 2004.