She was trained as a classical dancer and performed at many dance shows. At one of these shows, filmmaker Prakash Rao saw her and cast her in a dance sequence for the
Telugu film Gaalipataalu (1974). It led to dance numbers in the hit films
Krishnaveni (1974),
Soggadu (1975) and
Yamagola (1977). She was also seen as a vamp in
Nayakudu Vinayakudu opposite
ANR and
Jayalalithaa. She was then cast in the film
President Peramma where she performed a dance number, and then the film's director
K. Vishwanath asked her to submit some photographs where she wasn't wearing any make-up. She complied and he liked the results and cast her in the lead role as an unglamorous dancer in his next film
Sankarabharanam (1979), a film that broke box office records and became a landmark in
Telugu cinema. Besides the dubbed version of
Sankarabharanam, she has acted in some landmark Malayalam movies too. She has done a Tamil movie song in
BILLA in 1980 as well as a cameo in the famous classical dance sequence with Kamal Haasan in the movie
Saagara Sangamam in 1983. Although she was very satisfied with the film as it gave her fame and respect, she didn't get many roles in films after that, her height being the reason, but she chose to concentrate on her dance programs and running the dance school. One of her disciples is
Deepa Sashindran. ==Family==