Protima Bedi

Protima Bedi is an Indian model and dancer. She carved out a niche for herself as one of the nation’s leading feminist figures in the early 1970s’. Protima was born in Delhi, and throughout her childhood, her family frequently moved around the country. She graduated from St. Xavier’s College in Mumbai in 1967. Soon after, she made a name for herself as a leading magazine and catalogue model. Her progressive manner and boldness caused a lot of stir and laid out the foundation for future ideologies. She was highly skeptical of traditions and conventions during the early part of her life.

In 1975, on the way to a rock concert, Protima happened to watch an Odissi dance recital. The moment was a huge turning point in her life. Drawn to the immense spiritual and aesthetic quality of the performance, she immediately quit her work as a model and dedicated her life to dance. She trained under Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra Bio coming soon... >> Read More... and practiced for over 12 hours a day to perfect her art. She went to Madras to further study dance under Guru Kalanidhi Narayan. She performed across the country and started her own classes at Prithvi theatre in Mumbai.

Protima went on to establish ‘Nrityagrama’ on the outskirts of Bangalore in 1990. The beautifully designed Institute for Dance was the first-ever free school that functioned under a ‘ Gurukul Gurukul is a spirituality based reality TV show wh >> Read More... ’ system. It taught seven dance forms and two martial arts forms during its conception. She took on the name of Protima Gauri and was fondly known as ‘Protima Maa’ by her students during this period. She even made an appearance in the film ‘Miss Beatty’s Children’ by Pamela Rooks.

After the death of her son in 1997, Protima gave up all worldly attachment to become a Sanyasin. She traveled across the holy lands of India. She met her untimely death in a landslide in Mansarovar. After her demise, her daughter, Pooja Bedi Born in the year 1970, Pooja Bedi is a former Hind >> Read More... , published her memoirs titled ‘Timepass,’ which contains a collection of letters and other personal writing from her life. Protima lives on through her work and remains one of the most inspiring women in history.