Mallika Sarabhai

[caption id="attachment_86845" align="alignleft" width="380" caption="Mallika Sarabhai. AFP Photo"][/caption]Mallika Sarabhai is an activist, Indian classical dancer, actor, writer and choreographer based in Ahmedabad. The daughter of renowned classical dancer Mrinalini Sarabhai and Indian physicist Vikram Sarabhai, she started learning dance when she was young, while also working in parallel cinema at the age of 15. Initially recognised for her acting skills, she soon came to be better known as an exceptional Bharatnatyam and Kuchipudi dancer.Since she began acting, she has worked in more than 30 films, the highest in recall being her performance in Peter Brook's 1989 film The Mahabharata, wherein she played Draupadi. This was a film adaptation of Brook's 1985 play of the same name that travelled around the world for four years, of which Sarabhai was a part. She has also acted in many Gujarati films.She is the founder-director of the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts, which she manages with her mother. The Ahmedabad-based institute imparts training in dance, drama, music and puppetry. She runs Mapin Publishing with her ex-husband Bipin Shah.Mallika's activism starts with theatre; themes like education and women’s empowerment run through her works. The first hard-hitting solo was Shakti: The Power of Women in 1989.She was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2010.In March 2009, Sarabhai announced her candidature against the BJP's prime ministerial candidate LK Advani for the Gandhinagar Lok Sabha seat, as an independent candidate, describing it as a Satyagraha against the politics of hatred. This was seven years after the post-Godhara riots where the BJP's Narendra Modi government was accused of perpetrating communal violence. She lost to LK Advani by a huge margin.She also protested against Modi's sadbhavna (harmony) fast that was went from 17-19 September 2011).