Odissi Exponent And Cancer Survivor Gets Sangeet Natak Akademi Award

MUMBAI: Odissi exponent Shubhada Varadkar’s phone has not stopped ringing since Wednesday evening when the Sangeet Natak Akademi (SNA) announced its latest awardees. However, despite cross-continental congratulatory calls from family, friends and admirers, Varadkar said: “The award may bear my name but it belongs to my gurus, students, musicians, family and the countless rasikas who have walked alongside me.”

For over four decades, the 65-year-old has been more than a performer. She has been a teacher, mentor, institution-builder and one of the foremost ambassadors of Odissi outside Odisha.

Yet, long before dance entered her life, she inherited another legacy – of service and commitment for the betterment of community.

Her late father, Manohar Varadkar, was a freedom fighter who endured imprisonment for his role in India’s struggle for independence. Her mother, now in her 90s, was jailed during the Samyukta Maharashtra movement alongside stalwarts such as Ahilyabai Rangnekar and Mrinal Gore. Her grand-aunt Savitri Khanolkar, born Eva Yvonne Maday de Maros in Switzerland, designed the Param Vir Chakra, India’s highest military decoration, while grand uncle, Dr V R Khanolkar, is revered as one of the pioneers of pathology and medical research in India. Across the seas, her cousin Leo Varadkar would go on to become Prime Minister of Ireland.

Despite distinguished associations, dance became this once Ruia College Economics professor and Doordarshan anchor’s calling.

Born and raised in Maharashtra, Varadkar was drawn to Odissi after a chance workshop with the legendary Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra in the mid-’80s. That casual artistic curiosity turned into a lifelong devotion under the maestro’s guidance. “Odissi became much more than dance to me – it was a way to understand life,” she said.

That understanding was expressed in performances marked by lyrical grace and emotional depth – from interpreting verses from Jayadeva’s ‘Geet Govind’, to exploring spiritual themes and presenting contemporary choreographic works, she developed a style distinguished by its ability to marry technical rigour with emotional truth.

Her greatest contribution to the community however lies beyond the stage – through her organisation, Sanskrita Foundation, Varadkar has nurtured many underprivileged dancers, organised festivals, created performance opportunities and built audiences for classical arts. She taught not to produce replicas. “The greatest satisfaction for a teacher is not when students imitate you. But when they discover their own voice while remaining rooted in tradition,” she said.

While her students describe her as both exacting and nurturing, it is those qualities that steered her course through difficult chapters of her life.

Shabnam Sukhdev’s documentary ‘Peacock Plume’, based on Varadkar’s autobiography ‘Mayurpankh’, offers an intimate portrait of the dancer’s journey through personal upheaval, including a failed marriage and her battle with ovarian cancer following a diagnosis in 2006. In one of the scenes, she is seen advising a student: “The solution to your problems is within you. Go inside and go within.”

True to that spirit, she underwent chemotherapy and returned to rehearsals after brief recovery. “The prospect of never dancing again was frightening,” she said.

Nearly two decades later, cancer quietly returned in 2025, this time affecting her lungs. Varadkar underwent a pneumonectomy recently in which most of her left lung was removed. However, choosing gratitude over bitterness, she said: “I’m deeply grateful to Dr Sudeep Gupta and his entire team at Tata Memorial – their care, expertise and encouragement ensured that I could dance. There can be no bigger blessing for an artiste.”

The SNA therefore recognises not just an exceptionally accomplished performer but also honours a woman who transformed adversity into strength, who built institutions instead of merely careers, and who devoted her life to ensure that a classical tradition continues to thrive. It will live on in students she has mentored, audiences she has inspired and the generations of dancers who will continue to find their way to Odissi through the path she has paved.

Like the peacock plume that gives Sukhdev’s documentary its title, Varadkar’s journey has been marked by beauty, resilience and quiet radiance.