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Shobana did her schooling in Coimbatore at St. Thomas Higher Secondary School. She is the niece of the Travancore sisters – Lalitha, Padmini and Ragini, all of whom were classical Indian dancers and actresses. The actress Sukumari was her paternal aunt. Malayalam actress Ambika Sukumaran is her relative. Malayalam actors Vineeth is her cousin and Krishna is her nephew. She has an adopted daughter Ananthanarayani.

Shobana was trained under the Bharata Natyam dancers Chitra Visweswaran and Padma Subrahmanyam. She emerged as an independent performer and choreographer in her twenties and currently runs a dance school, Kalarpana, in Chennai. In 2006, the Government of India honoured her with the Padma Shri for her contributions towards the arts. In 2014, the Kerala State Government honoured her with the Kala Ratna Award. In 2019, she was bestowed an honorary doctorate from Dr. M.G.R. Educational and Research Institute.

Shobana won her first National Film Award for Best Actress in 1994 for her performance in AM Fazil's Manichitrathazhu. Her portrayal of Ganga Nakulan and alter-ego Nagavalli in the film was described by critics as "spell binding". She received her second National Film Award for Best Actress in 2001 for her role in the Indian English language film Mitr, My Friend, directed by Revathi. Consequent to the 1993 National Award, Shobana turned extremely selective about her films.

In 1994, Shobana founded a school for classical dance Bharata Natyam in Chennai – Kalarpana.

She started her own dance school, "Kalipinya" in 1989 and got it registered in 1992.

Her other major films include Meleparambil Aanveedu, Kanamarayathu, Ithiri Poove Chuvanna Poove , Yathra, Rangam (1985), Anantaram, Vrutham (1987), Idhu Namma Aalu (1988), Siva (1989), Innale (1990), Thalapathi (1991), Manichitrathazhu (1993), Thenmavin Kombath (1994), Minnaram(1994), Dance like a Man (2003), Mampazhakkalam (2004) and Makalkku (2005). From Aviduthe Pole Ivideyum to Upaharam, Shobana did sixteen movies in a single year, 1985. Shobana also acted in the Tamil period film Kochadaiiyaan.

She has worked on collaborative ventures with the likes of tabla maestro Zakir Hussain, Vikku Vinayakram and Mandolin Srinivas. Her recitals abroad include those at the World Malayalee convention, in the United States in 1985 and 1995, in Kuala Lumpur before the King and Queen of Malaysia, numerous cities in the United States, Europe, South East Asia and Australia. Shobana started performing in the prestigious Soorya Music & Dance festival organised by Soorya Krishnamoorthy from the year 1994. In 1999, Shobana along with Prabhu Deva and AR Rahman performed with a Tamil film dancing troupe at the "Michael Jackson and Friends" concert in Munich, Germany. She was also a part of Mani Ratnam's stage show, Netru, Indru, Naalai in 2000.

Shobana established herself as a leading actress in 1980s and 1990s. She has worked with directors such as Adoor Gopalakrishnan, G. Aravindan, K. Balachander, AM Fazil, Mani Ratnam, Bharathan, Uppalapati Narayana Rao, and Priyadarshan. She won the National Film Award for Best Actress twice, for her performances in the Malayalam film Manichitrathazhu (1993) and the English film Mitr, My Friend (2001). Consequent to the year 1999, Shobana turned extremely selective about her films.

Shobana made her debut as a child artist in the Bollywood film Amar Prem (1972). As an adult, she was introduced to the film industry through the film April 18, by director Balachandra Menon. Her realistic portrayal of a simple girl-next-door appealed to audiences instantly and she went on to work in numerous films. In the same year, she entered the Tamil film industry and acted in Enakkul Oruvan, directed by SP Muthuraman. Enakkul Oruvan didn't do well at the box office and Shobana's commercial landing was stalled and she went back into Malayalam films. She did come back to act in occasional Tamil films opposite Satyaraj (Mallu Vetti Minor, Vaathiyar Veetu Pillai), Bhagyaraj (Ithu Namma Aalu) and Vijayakanth (Ponmana Selvan, En Kitta Mothathey) in the early 90s – these roles were generally glamorous in which Shobana generally acted as the beautiful, posh and haughty city girl who is eventually charmed by the village boy.

Shobana Chandrakumar Pillai (born 1970), better known mononymously as Shobana, is an Indian film actress and bharatanatyam dancer. She acts predominantly in Malayalam language, in addition to Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Kannada and English language films. She has won two National Film Awards, one Kerala State Film Awards and numerous other awards.