Shobana Chandrakumar, popularly known mononymously as Shobana, is an acclaimed Indian actress, choreographer, and an exponent of Bharatanatyam dance. Shobana acted for the first time in a leading role in the Malayalam motion picture April 18 in 1984, directed by Balachandra Menon. She also acted alongside the Malayalam actor Mammootty in the film Kanamarayathu (1984). Shobhana became a leading heroine simultaneously in Telugu film industry. She has to her credit of being the first heroine opposite Nagarjuna Akkineni, when he was introduced to the industry through the hit film "Vikram". Shobhana is an accomplished dancer of Bharatanatyam. She did her dance training at the Chidambaram academy in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Her guru is the legendary Bharatanatyam dancer Chitra Visweswaran. Shobana is well recognized by her performance in the movie Rudra Veena (Telugu movie, 1988) with Chiranjeevi as a great dancer and Social reformer. She was also a part of Mani Ratnam`s stage show, Netru, Indru, Naalai. In 1994, Shobana founded a school for classical Bharatanatyam dance in Chennai - Kalarpana. The aim of Kalarpana is to organize annual festivals throughout India. This will include performances of nationally and globally known artistes to help raise funds that will be ploughed back into training talented artistes who are financially insecure. Under its umbrella, Kalarpana extends its support to the handicapped and the environmental movement. Shobana was born to Anandam and Chandrakumar, in Kerala. Shobana is the niece of the Travancore sisters Lalitha, Padmini and Ragini, all of whom were renowned for their skill in classical Indian dance. The veteran actress Ms Sukumari is an aunt from the paternal side.