“I never thought I’ll teach bharatnatyam to such an acclaimed actress like Hema Malini. Though she is senior to me, still she took me as her teacher. While working with her for her stage performances I learnt things that I did not learn even from my guru, says Hema Malini’s Bharatnatyam teacher S P Srinivasan.
Srinivasan who comes from Srirangam, a small village near Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu, learnt dance at the Kalakshetra, Chennai, moved to Mumbai and trained Hema Malini and for a short period her daughters, Esha and Ahana Deol as well in Bharatnatyam.
“I come from a very poor family in Srirangam. I learnt dance but I did not know what future I had. I never thought I’ll end up training Hema Malini, who is senior to me,” he said.
When Kitatpa Pillai, Hema Malini’s then bharatnatyam teacher fell ill in the 90s, she called S P Srinivasan to be her teacher, about whom she had heard from Kitatpa’s students. “I was already teaching dance in Mumbai and had become known amongst the bharatnatyam faculty. Hema Malini heard about me and called me to train her,” he said.
Srinivasan taught Hema Malini for about 4-5 years and even accompanied her on her stage shows all over the country. “I accompanied her (Hema Malini) for her stage shows. I was her teacher but lot of things that I did not learn from my guru, I got to learn when working with her for her stage shows,” he says.
Srinivasan gives full marks to Hema Malini as a disciple and as an actress but not as a Bharatnatyam dancer. “Hema is an excellent student, very polite, respectful to the teacher. I will give her full marks as a student but I cannot give her good marks as a Bharatnatyam dancer. She is a better actress and she dances as well so that is an additional credit to her. But as far as only Bharatnatyam is concerned, she is a bit easy going. She has always been like that. She is a great learner but not a hardworking one,” he said
He also taught Hema Malini’s daughters, Esha and Ahana, though for a short period of time. “I taught her daughters only for a short period of time. They were learning Odissi as well and were interested in a number of dance forms while I teach the traditional Bharatnatyam.
Srinivasan comes from the old school of Bharatnatyam and is totally against combining it with other modern dance forms. “Since Hema Malini is also growing old now, so she wants to mix it with ballet and do more of movements rather than sitting postures,” he said.
Though training Hema and her daughters brought fame to him, but he doesn’t consider it as a milestone in his career. “It did bring lot of fame for me, it was like advertising myself. But it was not a turning point in my career,” Srinivasan says.
The 57 year old Bharatnatyam teacher said, “I have been teaching dance for 35 years now. I started teaching dance at the age of 22 and I was already known for my Bharatnatyam teaching skills for which Hema Malini approached me,” he said.
Srinivasan teaches at two well known dance institutes in Mumbai and takes a few private tuitions as well. “Today I am well known in Mumbai for my Bharatnatyam dance. But it is not because of Hema Malini alone. For me this journey has been possible step by step.
Today I live in a luxurious flat with ACs but it was not the same always,” he recalls.
He started with teaching only 5-6 students and getting a meagre Rs 400 per month. “Out of Rs 400 that I got per month I paid Rs 80 as paying guest fee to my landlord, sent Rs 100 to my parents and saved Rs 100 in the bank. Then slowly I earned upto Rs 1200 per month and then 3k. And today I am teaching not less than 250 students,” Srinivasan says.
The dance guru even teaches students who are older to him and even the ones who are established dancers. “The already trained dancers are also learning from me ” he says.
When Srinivasan at the age of 18 decided to abandon studies after 12th and take up dance as a career his parents were worried. “They did not discourage me but they were not sure what future I had in the field.
His parents did not even have money to pay the fee of Kalakshetra, Chennai. “My father was retired and could not even pay the fee to enroll me for dance. But I managed to get a scholarship. So I started formal training in Bharatnatyam only at the age of 18,” Srinivasan said.
Srinivasan learned 3 years of Bharatnatyam at the Kalakshetra, Chennai and then moved to Mumbai. He learned for another 2 years from other Bharatnatyam teachers before moving to becoming a full-time teacher himself.
He believes that females are always better in giving stage performances because they are able to portray the expressions of mythological female characters better around which our Indian classical dance performances revolve. “I realized soon enough that if males take up dance as a profession, it has to be in the field of teaching because females give better stage performances. That is what I tell my male students as well,” he added.
