On the first evening of Navratri, Hema Malini reminded Telangana that her longest-running discipline predates every film role. At 77, the actor returned to the stage with her most popular dance ballet, Durga, at the Classic Convention Centre on Sunday.
The appearance was part of the Agarwal Samaj’s Agra Dandiya Navratri celebrations and also marked Maharaja Agrasen Jayanti on 11 October 2026. Sharing photographs after the performance, Hema said the timing made the evening feel special, writing that she felt “truly blessed.”
An art form older than the stardom
Long before the “Dream Girl” label, Hema was a dance student. She began learning Bharatanatyam at five, with her mother, Jaya Chakravarthy, playing an important part in her early training. She later studied Kuchipudi and Odissi, building a vocabulary that would return in her work on stage.
The discipline was not painless. In an interview with The Quint, she recalled the first lesson: when her guru tied bells around her ankles and demonstrated adavus and mudras, “my feet hurt terribly but I wasn’t allowed to take them off.” Her mother’s reassurance was that she would get used to them—and, Hema has said, she did.
- Began Bharatanatyam at five under her mother’s guidance
- Trained in Kuchipudi and Odissi as her repertoire grew
- Produced mythological ballets including Meera and Ramayana
- Performed Parampara with daughters Esha and Ahana Deol
Why the stage still carries the story
Hema has said her father suggested the family move toward ballet productions, and that audiences responded to ballets more readily than to pure classical recitals. Meera became Natyavihar Kala Kendra’s debut production, choreographed by Bhushan Lakhandri. The shift was, by her account, a good decision.
“Dance, for me, is devotion, meditation and also tradition.”
That line connects her childhood training to her present. She has described Parampara, performed with her daughters, as “the most beautiful moment” because it carries a tradition forward. Her daughters understand, she has said, that art has to be pursued and nourished.
The festival calendar gives the performance weight: Navratri is dedicated to the worship of Goddess Durga, so the ballet read as both a stage piece and an act of occasion. For readers who follow Hindi cinema closely, it is also a useful reminder that some careers are built on long arcs rather than release cycles.
Hema’s last screen credit remains the 2020 film Shimla Mirchi. At 77, returning as Durga on the festival’s opening day brings a clear arc into focus: a discipline learned at five, sustained through decades of fame and public life, and still commanding a festive stage.
Source: India Weekly
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