Kala

Kala, known professionally as Kala Master, is an Indian choreographer. She is the director of the Indian reality dance talent show, Maanada Mayilada – where she is one of the three judges. She was awarded the National Film Award for Best Choreography in 2000 for her folk dance sequences in the Malayalam film, Kochu Kochu Santhoshangal. She is also classically trained in Bharatanatyam, Kuchipudi and Kathak dance forms.

Career

A trained classical dancer with the Nritya Kalanithi award for Bharatanatyam in 1990, 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 in 1986 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 Koovum Neram achu" song in Azhagan as one of her leading pieces of work and also referred actress Bhanupriya as her favorite dancer. She was 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 sequences in the Malayalam film, Kochu Kochu Santhoshangal. She became the first to start a cinematic dance school named Kala's Kalalaya which has five branches in Chennai. She manages it along with her sisters. 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.

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

Selected filmography Choreographer Movie Song year Punnagai Mannan Choreographer 1986 Pudhu Pudhu Arthangal 1989 Chandramukhi 2005 Darbar 2020 Kaathu Vaakula Rendu Kaadhal Actor 2022

Singer Movie Song year Thiru Vi Ka Poonga"Naalai Ellam Nalam"2015

Personal life

Kala's elder sister, Jayanthi, first started dancing and acted as heroine in two films – Uthiripookkal and Poottatha Pookkal. Kala’s second sister Girija learned Bharatanatyam at Kalakshetra; and went on to work with choreographers Thangam and later Raghuram Master, whom she married afterwards, and also become an independent choreographer. Kala was the sixth daughter, while Brinda, a leading choreographer, is her youngest sister.

Kala was previously married to Govindarajan, the brother of actress Sneha. After this marriage ended in divorce, Kala's sister Brindha made negative comments about Sneha's dancing ability to a magazine.

Television