Raghuram

Raghuram (30 November 1949 – 30 November 2013) was an Indian film choreographer, who worked on more than 1,500 Bollywood routines.

Career

Raghuram began learning Kathakali, aged five from prominent dance expert Gopinath, and then in 1956, he switched to learning Bharata Natyam under danseuse K. J. Sarasa. He learnt dance along with J. Jayalalitha, with the pair both having their arangetram (debut) in 1960. It was during a duet performance with Jayalalithaa that Raghuram was asked to assist dance director A. K. Chopra for an M. G. Ramachandran (MGR) movie. He then started out on his own in 1974 and went on to choreograph Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi movies. He has worked on several films with Kamal Haasan, early on in his career, choreographing celebrated work in Sagara Sangamam (1983) about a classical dancer, and in the romantic Hindi film Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981).

Raghuram also went on the direct the 1995 Bengali film, Bhagya Debata, starring Mithun Chakraborty and Rajinikanth. He then featured alongside Kamal Haasan in Dasavathaaram (2008) as Appa Rao, a comedy cop. In 2012, an event named Amma Appa Guru Deivam was held to felicitate Raghuram's fiftieth year in the film industry. The event, heralded a success by the media, featured dance performances from actors and speeches from other film personalities.