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Working towards a spiritual vision

A vibrant persona, vivacious and versatile, Swapna Sundari is simply an artiste’s dream personified. On stage, her agility and adroit skill can bowl over the worst critic. Off stage, her outspokenness can be as endearing as it can be intimidating for, she is a no-nonsense woman, more so an artiste who will not brook any interference to her independence.

Looking back at life, Swapna Sundari admits there is a karmic touch to everything that happens in our life. Twice, she came close to becoming an actor in mainstream cinema. “To that extent, I signed the contracts, the shooting schedules were ready for take off and all of a sudden I announced my refusal to go ahead for reasons inexplicable to others and most elucidating to my own self. Call it my impulse or imprudence; I felt I was not cut out for cinema. But all I knew at that age was that I didn’t want to be called a ‘film star’, I wanted to be known as a ‘classical dancer.’ Very naïve it sounds today, isn’t it?” she questions laughingly.

So the ‘stubborn’ girl went on to become the ‘determined’ dancer. And the galaxy of cinema may have lost a potential actress with beauty and brains as director K. Vishwanath openly announced on the floor of the auditorium once. But the world of classical dance has gained a bold researcher and performer par excellence. For how can one explain the extent to which Swapna Sundari went in order to achieve what she wanted all the way. Having established herself as a Kuchipudi dancer in no less a place than Delhi, she was not one to just rest on her laurels. Constantly creative, her artistic mind explored the depths of the dance form. Her urge took her to the original propagators of dance — the devadasis (temple dancers). A handful were still striving to keep their ‘profession’ alive then in coastal Andhra. And Swapna was daring enough to grab one of these artistes, take her all the way home to Delhi and learn the traditional art in its pristine form. The social taboo that surrounded these women made no dent on Swapna. Her goals were set.

Curiosity kills the cat. What were the movies you had refused? “Director K. Vishwanath was looking around for a new face with dancing capabilities for his Siri Siri Muvva. I was pursuing my Kuchipudi at Vempati Chinna Satyam’s. My mother, Vakkalanka Sarala, was by then an established singer known to the movie world. Not that I was not thrilled by the prospect, but even at that age I was determined to manage my own career. Initially, I agreed to play the heroine’s role as it was dance-based. Everything was fixed and we had to start the schedule. Now, I feel that in all my immaturity, I put a few bold questions to such a veteran director and walked out of the sets at the last minute because the costumes and the remuneration were not to my liking! Just imagine. Similarly, years later, I signed up to play Muzaffar Ali’s Umrao Jaan which required my shift to Bombay, which also meant giving up my dance practice. I called it off again. The sum total of this is that I was branded as an arrogant , headstrong girl,” she says as a matter of fact.

While any one of these prestigious films could have pitch-forked her to fame in no time, as Swapna puts it, the ‘karmic’ element had something else in store. It had obviously more hard work and comparatively late recognition. But then at the end of the day, she stands out to be what she dreamt — a nationally acclaimed dancer and researcher of repute.

The premier production Shadruthu that she launched for Sangeet Natak Akademi’s Sankhya series was the outcome of her merit. Six languages each to denote the six seasons of the year, propped by English preludes and interludes, the Prakriti and Purusha concept worked into the thematic production made for the sixth element in the festive series.

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