Rupali had been following her passions of acting and dance parallelly. She has been working in the field of Kathak dance for the last 35 years.Rupali had been following her passions of acting and dance parallelly. She has been working in the field of Kathak dance for the last 35 years.

Dr. Rupali Shrikant Desai is a Kathak exponent, guru, and founder of Sanskruti Cultural Academy in Mumbai.

Recalling her childhood, Rupali says that she enjoyed the artistic background in her family at the time. Her parents were art lovers, as her father was an actor and her mother used to sing. In her childhood, she was also interested in the acting field. She was introduced to dance when she was in sixth grade, and slowly her interest developed in this field. After tenth grade, she learned acting from her father and started doing it professionally after twelfth grade.

Talking about her journey, Rupali says that when she was in the eleventh grade, she started learning Kathak under the guidance of her guru, Dr. Manjiri Deo. She also completed Visharad in Kathak at Akhil Bharatiya Gandharva Mahavidyalaya in 1997. She was also interested in the acting field, so she decided to follow her passions in parallel.  Later, she decided to pursue Kathak as a full-time profession to manage everything. She gave many performances at various stages and also did many solo shows.

When asked about her mistakes, Rupali says that she didn’t make any big mistakes in her journey but faced many difficulties. In 2008, she met with an accident and had to use a walker for some time. She says that music helped her a lot to attain mental peace during that difficult time. From this challenge, she learned to be positive in any situation and to overcome it. She learned a lot from her experience and believes that one can learn new things every day.

Sharing about her achievements, Rupali says that the role she plays as a guru and how she satisfies her students is an accomplishment for her. She also got appreciation from her gurus, and as a mother and guru, she trained her daughter in Kathak, which is a source of pride for her. She has been recognised by many awards, like the Sringarmani Puraskar, the Yogeswari Puraskar, the Tej Tapasvini Puraskar, and many more. She also completed her doctorate degree under the guidance of her guru. Her guru also got the Best Margdarshak Award in her subject, which is one of her biggest achievements. She got appreciation from Pt. Birju Maharaj and Puru Dadheech, which was a proud moment for her.

Rupali’s role models are her parents and grandmother who sacrificed a lot and she learned how to handle tough situations with positivity from them. As a Kathak dancer she considers her gurus Dr. Manjiri Deo and Pt. Mukundraj Deo as her role models and has learned a lot from them. She also admires renowned artists in this field like Pt. Birju Maharaj, Puru Dadheech and many more.

Rupali’s life mantra is to work hard first and then believe that it will happen.