Indu Mitha

Indu Mitha (née Chatterjee; 1929 – 31 August 2026) was a Pakistani dancer and choreographer who was an exponent of Bharatnatyam, and one of only two in the nation (the other being Sheema Kirmani) at the time of her death. She also remained a faculty member at the Rawalpindi campus of the National College of the Arts after retirement.

Early life Indu Chatterjee was born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1929, into a Bengali Christian family of Brahmin heritage that had converted to Christianity. She studied MA philosophy from Delhi University in 1951. Her father, Gyanesh Chandra Chatterjee, was a professor of philosophy and president of the Government College in Lahore, which was where Mitha grew up. Her elder sister Uma Anand married famous Bollywood director Chetan Anand. Her family moved to Delhi from Lahore during the Partition of India. In Delhi, she learned Bharatanatyam from Vijay Raghava Rao and Shrimati Lalita. Mitha learnt modern expressional dance from the iconic choreographer and actress Zohra Sehgal. After Independence, Mitha continued her dance training at Sangeet Bharat School and then later from S.V.Lalita.

Career In the years following her husband's retirement, Mitha began teaching Bharatnatyam in Lahore. Her first position was at the Lahore Grammar school, where she became a celebrated dance teacher. Her students and she were even able to put on a full-on performance at the end of her first teaching sojourn. She later did one show a year for private audiences, mostly all-women groups, due to the heightened atmosphere linked to the increasing Islamization in Pakistan.

Adaptations To suit Pakistani cultural and religious norms, Mitha altered the performance and style of the Bharatnatyam she taught. She composed Bharatnatyam songs in Urdu, due to her lack of understanding of Tamil, Telugu or Sanskrit, the three languages Bharatnatyam songs are traditionally composed in. Their daughter, Tehreema Mitha is an accomplished Bharatnatyam dancer.

Mitha died on 31 August 2026.

Awards Mitha received President's Award for Pride of Performance Awards (2020–2029) in August 2020.