Protima Gauri
| Protima Bedi | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
Protima Gupta 12 October 1948 Delhi, India |
| Died | 18 August 1998 (aged 49) Malpa, Pithoragarh, India |
| Occupation | Classical Indian dancer, Model |
| Spouse(s) | Kabir Bedi (m. 1969–1974) |
| Children | 2, including Pooja Bedi |
| Website | www |
Protima Gauri Bedi (October 12, 1948 – August 18, 1998) was an Indian model turned odissi . In 1990, she established "Nrityagram", a dance village near Bangalore.
Protima was born in Delhi, the second of the four siblings, three daughters and a son. Her father Laxmichand Gupta, a trader belonging to an Aggarwal family from Karnal district, Haryana, and her mother Reba, a Bengali. Her father had to leave home, because of opposition to his marriage, Thereafter, he started working in Delhi.
In 1953, her family moved to Goa, and in 1957 to Bombay. At age nine, she was sent to stay at her aunt's, in a village in Karnal district for a while, where she studied in a local school. On her return, she was sent to Kimmins High School, Panchgani, where she received her early education. She graduated from St. Xavier's College, Bombay (1965–67).
By the late 1960s, she was a prominent model. In 1974, she came into the news for streaking during the daytime for the launch of the Bollywood magazine, Cineblitz at Juhu Beach in Bombay.
In August 1975, at the age of 26, an Odissi dance recital completely changed her life when she ran into the Bhulabhai Memorial Institute by chance, and saw two young dancers giving an Odissi performance. It filled her with a kind of passion she'd never known before, in spite of its extremely complex rhythms, patterns and sophisticated hand-and-eye gestures. She became a student of Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra from whom she learnt the art of dancing for 12 to 14 hours a day and faced a lot of hardship as a beginner. She transformed herself from being the tight trouser, halter neck, off-shoulder girl with gold streaked hair to Protima Gauri, later as Gauri Amma or Gauri Maa, as she was affectionately known amongst her students.
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