Born to late K. Subrahmanyam and Meenakshi, Padma Subrahmanyam (Director, Nrityodaya, Chennai, India) is acclaimed as a rare combination of a dancer, research scholar, choreographer, music composer, singer, teacher, author, Indologist and one of the most outstanding artistes of today. Her father Director K. Subrahmanyam was an internationally reputed film pioneer, freedom fighter and a parental personality in the cultural field. Her mother Meenakshi was a music composer, a lyricist in Sanskrit and Tamil and an instrumentalist who played the veena, violin and harmonium