Swarnamalya Ganesh – Tamil actress and classical dancer

Swarnamalya Ganesh is a Tamil film actress and TV anchor by profession. She is best known for supporting roles on big screen, while she owns a successful career as an anchor. She is also a dancer by profession and a professor, and has published a few works related to dance forms. The research and reconstruction of lost repertoires of the Nayaka Period in Early Modern South India was her doctoral work. She owns a dance school.

Swarnamalya Ganesh is performing dance forms since the age of 12

She was born on 22 April 1981 in Chennai. She started learning dance forms at a young age and started giving stage performances at the age of 12. Since then she has been regularly performing on stage and has associated with different sabhas. She also performs in art festivals across the country. She has also reconstructed many repertoires. She is the Director of Ranga Mandira School of Performing Arts and Ranga Mandira Academy of World Dance/ Performance and Indic Studies.

She played Shalini’s elder sister in her debut film, Alaipayuthey

Alaipayuthey in 2000 marked her big screen debut. She played Shalini’s elder sister Poorni in the film. Though the role was brief, her performance got noticed and she got more film offers. Ilamai Pudhumai on SUN TV was her first hit TV show. Since then she has been regular in television as an anchor alongside stage performances.

She played supporting roles in Tamil films such as Mozhi, Engal Anna, Sankarankovil, Velli Thirai, Inga Enna Sollathu, Yuga, Pulivaal etc. She got married at a young age, later went through a divorce, and faced challenges such as mental stress and suicidal thoughts. She told in an interview that cinema was not the reason for problems in her marriage,  but considers getting married as one of the biggest mistakes of her life.

Currently, Swarnamalya is actively involved in art and cultural research. Writing and travelling are other hobbies. She loves to explore various aspects of tradition and culture, write them down and also add those influences to her dance pieces.

Swarnamalya and #MeToo movement

She has been the forefront of the #MeToo movement in Carnatic music and was also vocal about her support to those who called out lyricist Vairmuthu for alleged sexual harassment back in 2017. For this reason, during one occasion she was asked not to turn up at Sahitya Akademi event in Tamil Nadu.

Some years back, a nude MMS of a woman who looked remarkably like her which was doing the rounds. When her friend showed it to her, she found that that lady was speaking Hindi while Swarnamalya can’t. Swarnamalya too was subjected to character assassination because of her alleged links to Vijayendra Saraswathi, who was then the junior pontiff at the Kanchi mutt.

Dr. Swarnamalya – Some interesting and less-known facts

1. She did her arangetram (first stage performance) in the presence of Avvai Natarajan and Padma Subrahmanyam at the age of 12.

2. While shooting for her debut flick Alaipayuthey, she did her first shot in front of P. C. Sreeram, Mani Ratnam and Shekhar Kapoor. It was the first shot of film too. At the age of 17, she did the shot effortlessly without tension, while Madhavan was a little bit nervous.

3. She has created a performance-exhibition-lecture series titled From The Attic.

4. She owns a doctorate based on her thesis, The research and reconstruction of lost repertoires of the Nayaka Period in Early Modern South India.