Renowned actress and danseuse Shobhana plays a new role of the villainous king Ravana in her dance musical Maya Ravan.This play showcases a great combination of dignified tradition and cosmopolitan outlook.

Shobhana chose to play the ten-headed demon king of Lanka because of his awe-inspiring personality. Inspired by Ashok Banker’s Ramayana series, Shobana beautifully interwove the  myriad emotions of love, lust, deceit, anger, valour and sorrow in this production.

“He was handsome, he was an artist, he was a painter, he loved the arts, used to play the instrument called Veena and was a great devotee of Lord Shiva,” Shobhana says.

“We have used the gestures of Bharatnatyam, we have used gestures of Mohiniattam, film dancing and Kathakali. It brings out the spirit of the Ramayana,” Shobhana explains.

Maya Ravan is Shobhana’s pet project for the last two years.

Maya Ravan had a lot of celebrities behind it. The dialogues were by Naseeruddin Shah, Revathi Menon, Suhasini Maniratnam, Rohini, Milind Soman, Jackie Shroff, Sameer Sony and Shobana.

The show is in aid of the Society for Development, Research & Training (SFDRT) primarily involved with the children of sex workers and HIV infected children with AIDS. The fund  raised is earmarked for improving and training the afflicted children including minor girls.

Shobana is an exponent of Bharatanatyam dance and a leading actress of South Indian motion pictures. She has received dance lessons from legendary Bharatanatyam dancers Chitra Visweswaran and Padma Subramaniam. She has performed around the world for which she has received numerous awards including Padma Sri, the highest civilian award in India for  overall contribution to arts.