Bhavna Pani – Actress and dancer of ‘Vettam’ fame

Bhavna Pani is an actress, model and dancer. She has appeared in more than a dozen of Bollywood, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada films combined, in lead and supporting roles. She played lead role opposite Dileep in Malayalam comedy film, Vettam, directed by Priyadarshan, which is her memorable role up-to-date. She marked her screen debut with 2001 film, Tere Liye, and was later seen in Bollywood films – Tezz, Hawaizaada, Fast Forward, Dil Vil Pyar Vyar etc.

Bhavna Pani is trained in Odissi, Kathak, and contemporary modern dance forms

Bhavna Pani was born to ad filmmaker Uday Shankar Pani in Mumbai. Her ancestral village is in Ganjam district. She is trained in Odissi and Kathak by Kelucharan Mohapatra and Birju Maharaj respectively and is a performer on stage. Initially she into fashion designing. She marked her screen debut with 2001 film, Tere Liye in a parallel lead role opposite Arjun Punj. Along with it she accepted south Indian films too. Same year she marked her Kannada debut too. Though her parents supported her dance passions, initially they didn’t want her to enter film industry. In fact she didn’t inform her parents after signing her first film.

She marked her south Indian debut through Kannada film, Yuvaraja

Yuvaraja – remake of Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander marked her south Indian debut where she reprised the character played by Ayesha Jhulka. Later she appeared in Kannada film, Ninagoskara, where she was paired with Darshan. Ninu Choodaka Nenundalenu opposite Sacchiin J Joshi marked her Telugu debut in 2002, and same year, her supporting role in Dil Vil Pyar Vyar also got noticed.

In 2004 she marked her Malayalam debut through hit film, Vettam. However she could get big roles later and most of her releases flopped. She appeared in Netflix film, The Big Fat City in 2017.

Bhavna Pani – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. She has been a very rebellious child who did not listen to parents – says Bhavna. Her parents too never comment about her film performances.

2. She made her first stage performance as a dancer at the age of 6.

3. She is trained in contemporary dance, Jazz and Ballet, apart from Odissi and Kathak. She also learnt a little bit of Latin American and hip-hop.

4. She trained contemporary dance at Terrence Lewis Contemporary Dance Company.

5. Her younger sister Devna Pani is a fashion designer and actress. She has one elder sister too.

6. She worked in two Priyadarshan films – Vettam and Tezz.

7. She made a special appearance in a song sequence in Aamayum Muyalum.

8. She has worked as a fashion designer with a Nariman Point fashion studio.

9. She has performed as Krishna with Meenakshi Seshadri during childhood, and has a senior at a dance school to Esha Deol. She also got opportunity to teach Deol.

10. She has done Sahara India’s international dance-musical show, Bharti- -The Wonder that is India, which includes different genres of dance forms. In the musical show, Bharti, she played a simpleton girl from Varanasi.

11. She has been featured in the ads of Clinic, Samsung Mobile, Nirma, Pepsi, Videocon, Hero Honda, Lux, Dabur etc. She has appeared along with Shah Rukh Khan, Hritik Roshan, Sourav Ganguly, Saif Ali Khan, Aishwarya Rai, Amisha Patel, Madhavan etc in ads.

12. She frequently appeared in ads done by famed ad-guru Prahlad Kakkar and acclaimed cinematographer Santosh Sivan.