Rocket Boys, the Sony Liv series based on the lives of two most famous Indian scientists – Dr. Homi Jehangir Bhabha and Dr. Vikram Sarabhai. The web series starring Jim Sarbh and Ishwak Singh in the lead roles has opened to positive reviews. It focuses on personal as well as professional lives of these two scientists and how they led India towards founding its space and nuclear research programmes.
Dr. Vikram Sarabhai married a classical dancer, Mrinalini Sarabhai in 1942. The two had met in Bangalore when Dr. Vikram was working with Homi Bhabha at IISc.
Mrinalini passed away in 2016 at the age of 97. The couple had two children – Mallika and Kartikeya.
Mallika is an accomplished classical dancer trained in Bharatnatyam and Kuchipudi. Apart from being a noted choreographer and dancer she has also acted in a few Hindi, Malayalam, Gujarati and international films.
Currently, the 67-year-old dancer manages the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts in Ahmedabad, founded by her mother Mrinalini. She also continues to run Mapin Publishing along with her ex-husband Bipin Shah.
Kartikeya Sarabhai is an environmental educator. He founded the Centre for Environment Education in Ahmedabad, with branches in 40 cities across India.
Currently, he is also serving as the Chairman of Ambalal Sarabhai Enterprises Ltd., a pharmaceutical company set up by his grandfather Ambalal Sarabhai. The Padma Shri awardee is one of the trustees of the Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust and Physical Research Laboratory (PRL).
While Kartikeya did not get married, Mallika has two children with her ex-husband. Her son Revanta Sarabhai Shah is known to be one of the few male Bharatanatyam soloists of his generation in India.
Revanta is also an actor and choreographer. He is also closely associated with the Darpana Academy of Performing Arts in Ahmedabad. Once asked what made him choose Bharatanatyam, he said:
As I was growing up, I saw my grandmother and mother constantly travel and perform. I tagged along with my mother. It was exciting for me as a child as I got to see new places, travel and watch a variety of dance forms. I was surrounded by dancers and even woke up to the beats of dance classes held in the ground floor of our home. I used to walk across the dance class and at times, weave my way through dancers to go to school. Dance was a huge part of my upbringing and felt natural for me to take to Bharatanatyam.
He married Priyanka Raja in an intimate ceremony in August 2017.
Another child of Mallika is Anahita. She is a performing artist, educator, poet, queer activist, and the co-founder and director of QueerAbad. It is a support group for queer folk based in Ahmedabad, that focuses on community-building and community-oriented safe spaces.
From scientists and industrialists to artists, this family has it all.
