Vimala Rangachar

Vimala Rangachar (1929 – 25 February 2025) was an Indian educationist who was associated with the fine arts and performing arts conservation movement of Karnataka. She was one of the founding members of the Mysore Education Society and was a recipient of the Karnataka government's Rajyotsava Award for her contributions to the fields of education, arts and culture.

Early life Vimala Rangachar was born in 1929 to Ammanni Ammal and SK Ramanuja Iyengar. The family had roots in Bangalore's Malleshwaram neighborhood with her grandfather Venkataranga Iyengar being one of the founders of Malleswaram in the late 19th century.

Rangachar was an advocate for women's empowerment and co-founded the Malleswaram Enterprising Women’s Society (MEWS), a society focused on women's development. She also served as the president of Seva Sadan, a charitable organization that included children's orphanages. She took over this position from Lokasundari, the wife of Nobel laureate and Physicist C. V. Raman.

Rangachar was also involved in theater, heading the Bangalore-based theater troupe Kalajyothi. It is noted that she was discontented with male actors portraying female roles, she took up acting herself, even involving her husband in performances. Some of the group's productions included plays by Kannada playwrights T. P. Kailasam and Pravatani. One of the group's productions was a hindi performance of Kailasam's Ammavra Ganda, where the attendees included Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first Prime Minister. She was also one of the contributing artists who set up the Amateur Dramatic Associates Theatre (ADA Rangamandira) on J. C. Road in Bangalore. In the early 1970s, Rangachar contributed to the setting up of Jawahar Bal Bhavan in Bangalore's Cubbon Park as a dedicated space for children's theatre.