The National Award-winning actor-dancer recalls the tragedy that changed her life and the extraordinary journey that saw her return against all odds
At sixteen, Sudha Chandran’s life took a devastating turn after a road accident that eventually led to the amputation of her right leg. “For seven days after the accident, I was fine because it was just a fracture, but in those seven days, my life turned completely,” she recalls. For a young Bharatanatyam dancer whose life revolved around the stage, the moment was hard to process. “At sixteen, it was very difficult for me to believe how God could be so unkind. I kept asking myself what wrong I had done.”
Opening up about that turning point in her life on the Think Right podcast with Rajan Navani and BK Shivani, Sudha reflected on how the tragedy ultimately became the reason she could rediscover her purpose. She says, “Later I realised that because the knee was saved, I am able to dance today. I think that was God’s blessing.” Determined not to let the accident define her future, she returned to the stage with a prosthetic limb. “If I had accepted that this was my destiny, I would never have emerged. I decided that if God wrote this destiny, I would change it here on Earth.”
Her remarkable comeback soon inspired the Telugu film Mayuri, based on her own life, in which Chandran played herself – a performance that earned her the National Film Award (Special Jury Award). “My father said he didn’t have money, but he wanted this story to inspire people,” she recalls. “Many people came up to me and said they were thinking of ending their lives, but after watching the film they decided to live.”
Yet the years after Mayuri were far from easy. “After Mayuri, I had no work for six years. People said I didn’t belong in the industry,” Chandran says. The turning point came when producer Ekta Kapoor offered her a negative role in Kaahin Kissii Roz. “I asked her if she had a heroine’s role for me,” she recalls, “but she laughed and said I had crossed that age.” Taking the negative role eventually reshaped her career and introduced her to a new generation of audiences.
Looking back today, Chandran sees her journey as proof that setbacks can redefine purpose. “The tragedy doesn’t matter anymore,” she says. “What matters is what you choose to become after it.”