Prabhu Deva

Prabhu Deva
Born	(1973-04-03) 3 April 1973 Mysore, Karnataka, India
Occupation	Film actor, director, choreographer
Years active	1989—present
Spouse(s)	Ramlath (1995-2010)

Prabhu Deva (born 3 April 1973 as Shankupani Sundaram) is an Indian dancer, choreographer, film actor and director. He has performed in a wide range of dancing styles, is a two time National Best Choreographer Award winner and has been called by the media as India's Michael Jackson.

After a sequence of successful attempts in acting in the 1990s and early 2000s such as Kadhalan (1994), Raasaiyya (1995), Minsara Kanavu (1997), Naam Iruvar Namakku Iruvar (1998), Kaathala Kaathala (1998) and Vanathai Pola (2000), Prabhu Deva also pursued a career in direction through the 2005 Telugu blockbuster Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana. He then went on to direct successful films in Telugu, Hindi and Tamil languages such as Shankardada Zindabad (2007), Pokkiri (2007), Wanted (2009) and Rowdy Rathore (2012).

Early life and career

Prabhu Deva was born in Mysore, Karnataka to Kannada Lingayat family and was originally named Shankupani. His father, Mugur Sundar (known as Sundaram Master), was a choreographer for South Indian movies. His family later moved to Chennai where he grew up. Prabhu Deva was inspired by his father and took up dancing learning Indian classical dance forms such as Bharatanatyam from Dharmaraj and Udipi Lakshminarayanan as well as Western styles. Raju Sundaram and Nagendra Prasad are his brothers.

Prabhu Deva's first venture as a choreographer was Vetri Vizha (1989). Before that, he had appeared as a background dancer for a song in the Tamil film Agni Natchathiram. He has since then choreographed in over 100 movies. From choreography, he went into acting. His first film as an actor was Indhu (1994) with actress Roja. In 1999, Deva, Shobhana and A. R. Rahman performed with a Tamil cinema dancing troupe at the "Michael Jackson and Friends" concert in Munich, Germany. He acted alongside his brothers in the movie One Two Three. As of 2010, he serves as chairman and director of the Prabhudeva's Dance Academy in Singapore. He planned to release his first video album called It is boring in 2013. He also played the lead role in ABCD (Any Body Can Dance), the first 3D dance film in India.

Personal life

Prabhu Deva married Ramlath who converted from Islam and changed her name to Latha; they had three children - their eldest son (Basavaraju/Vishal) died of cancer in 2008.

During the making of the film Villu in 2008, there were reports that he and actress Nayantara fell in love on the sets with some reports even claiming that he married her secretly in June 2009. She had tattooed his name on her wrist and began appearing with him in public, while neither denying nor confirming the relationship. In September 2010, Prabhu Deva openly confessed his love for Nayantara and further stated that he would marry her soon. The issue gained media attention and turned into a controversy, since Prabhu Deva was not divorced from Ramalath. Prabhu Deva publicly claimed that his marriage to Ramalath was invalid; he privately wed Nayantara after she underwent conversion to Hinduism. Unwilling to grant a divorce, she filed a petition at the family court, seeking directions against her husband and Nayantara marrying, attending functions together and receiving awards as husband and wife, and requesting a reunion with him. Furthermore, Ramalath threatened to go on hunger strike if Prabhu Deva married Nayantara, while several women's organizations conducted protests against Nayantara for bringing disrepute to Tamil culture, burning an effigy of her. In 2012, Nayantara confirmed that she had ended her relationship with Prabhu Deva.

Prabhu Deva has moved to Mumbai and is residing at Boney Kapoor's old place in Green Acres.

Other appearances

Prabhu Deva's performance at IPL Season 5 opening cermony

• Prabhu Deva made brief appearances in solo items such as "Rajathi Raja" in Agni Natchathiram (1988), "April Mayile" in Idhayam (1991), "Lallaku Doldapi Ma" in Suriyan (1992), "Chinna Rasave" in Walter Vetrivel (1993), and "Chikku Bukku Rayile" in Gentleman (1993).
• He performed with Madhuri Dixit in the song "Ke Sera Sera" for the movie Pukar.
• He acted along with Lawrence Raghavendra in the hit movie Style.
• He performed with Apache Indian in the song "No Problem" in the film Love Birds.
• He made a special appearance in Pokkiri (which was directed by himself) with Vijay in the song "Aadungada".
• He performed in the film Abrakadabra for the song "Om Sh".
• He performed in the Nana Patekar – Karisma Kapoor film Shakti for a song.
• He performed with Vijay in the movie Villu for the song "Hey Rama". This was a guest appearance. The film was also directed by him.
• He performed with Bollywood actors Salman Khan and Govinda for a song in the 2009 movie Wanted.
• He performed with American singer Katy Perry at the opening ceremony of the 5th edition of IPL on 3 April 2012 in Chennai along with Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Priyanka Chopra. This event was special to Prabhu Deva as the actor shared his 39th birthday on the same day.

Awards

• He is a two-time winner of the National Film Award for Best Choreography for his work on the film Minsaara Kanavu (1997) in Tamil and Lakshya (2004) in Hindi, as well as a Filmfare Best Choreography Award (Telugu) for the Telugu film Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana (2005) and Filmfare Award Best Choreography for film Lakshya (2004).
• In 2001, he was nominated for the Star Screen Award for Best Choreography, for choreographing the dance sequences in the Hindi film Pukar (2000).
• In 2005, Prabhu Won the Nandi Award for Best Choreographer for Varsham (2004).
• In 2005, he won the Star Screen Award for Best Choreography, the Filmfare Best Choreography Award, and the National Film Award for Best Choreography, for choreographing the dance sequences in the Hindi film Lakshya.
• In 2007, he won a Vijay Award for Favourite Director and a Mathrubhumi Award for Best Director in Tamil for the film Pokkiri.
• He has been honoured with a life membership at the International Film and Television Research Centre of the Asian Academy of Film & Television by Sandeep Marwah.

Soramimi spoof

On 18 August 2007, a music video for the song "Kalluri Vaanil" from the Indian-Tamil movie Pennin Manathai Thottu was uploaded to YouTube by Mike Sutton (YouTube user Buffalax). The video was created as a soramimi, edited to include incorrect English subtitles that phonetically approximate the original Tamil lyrics.

Reactions to the "Kalluri Vaanil" soramimi were mixed. Some felt that the video was done in "good fun" while others worried that their culture was being mocked. The music video was featured on The Colbert Report on 4 December 2008 and appeared on the Heavy Metal documentary Global Metal.

Filmography

As director

Year	Film	Cast	Language	Notes
2005	Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana	Siddharth, Trisha	Telugu
2006	Pournami	Prabhas, Trisha	Telugu
2007	Pokkiri	Vijay, Asin	Tamil	Vijay Award for Favourite Director
2007	Shankardada Zindabad	Chiranjeevi, Karishma Kotak	Telugu
2009	Villu	Vijay, Nayanthara	Tamil
2009	Wanted	Salman Khan, Ayesha Takia Azmi	Hindi
2011	Engeyum Kaadhal	Jayam Ravi, Hansika	Tamil
2011	Vedi	Vishal Krishna, Sameera	Tamil
2012	Rowdy Rathore	Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha	Hindi
2013	Ramaiya Vasta Vaiya	Girish Kumar, Shruti Haasan	Hindi	Releasing on July 19, 2013
2013	Rambo Rajkumar	Shahid Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha	Hindi	Filming

As actor

Year	Film	Role	Language	Notes
1988	Agni Natchathiram		Tamil	Special appearance in song "Raaja Raajathi"
1991	Idhayam		Tamil	Special appearance in song "April Mayile"
1992	Suriyan		Tamil	Special appearance in song "Laalaku Dol Dappima"
1993	Pratap		Tamil	Special appearance in song "Maanga Maanga"
1993	Rakshana		Telugu	Special appearance in song "Gallu Mandhi Basu"
1993	Gentleman		Tamil	Special appearance in song "Chikku Bukku Rayile"
1993	Walter Vetrivel		Tamil	Special appearance in song "Chinna Raasave"
1994	Indhu	Pattasu	Tamil
1994	Kaadhalan	Prabhu
1995	Raasaiyya	Raasaiyya	Tamil
1996	Love Birds	Arun	Tamil
1996	Mr. Romeo	Romeo Madras	Tamil
1997	Minsara Kanavu	Deva	Tamil
1997	VIP	Guru	Tamil
1998	Naam Iruvar Nammaku Iruvar	Prabhu Deva	Tamil
1998	Love Story 1999	Vamsi	Telugu
1998	Kaathala Kaathala	Sundaralingam	Tamil
1999	Ninaivirukkum Varai	Janakiraman (Jonny)	Tamil
1999	Suyamvaram	Kanna	Tamil	Also playback singer ("Shiva Shiva Shankara" song)
1999	Time	Srininvasa Murthy	Tamil
2000	Vaanathaippola	Selvakumar	Tamil
2000	Eazhaiyin Sirippil	Ganesan	Tamil
2000	Pukar		Hindi	Special appearance
2000	James Pandu	James	Tamil
2000	Pennin Manathai Thottu	Sunil	Tamil
2000	Doubles	Prabhu	Tamil
2001	Nila Kaalam		Tamil
2001	Ullam Kollai Poguthae	Anbu	Tamil
2001	Alli Thandha Vaanam	Sathyam	Tamil
2001	Manadhai Thirudivittai	Deva	Tamil
2002	H2O	Vairamuthu	Kannada
2002	Charlie Chaplin	Thiru	Tamil
2002	Santosham	Pawan	Telugu
2002	One Two Three	Thirupathy	Tamil
2002	Manasella Neene		Kannada
2002	Baba		Tamil	Special appearance
2002	Agni Varsha	Rakshasha	Hindi
2002	Shakti - The Power		Hindi	Special appearance
2002	Thotti Gang	Suri Babu	Telugu
2003	Alaudin	Alaudin	Tamil
2003	Oka Radha Iddaru Krishnula Pelli	Murugan	Telugu
2003	Intlo Srimathi Veedhilo Kumari	Gophaal	Telugu
2003	Kalyana Ramudu	Rajesh	Telugu
2004	Engal Anna	Kannan	Tamil
2004	Tapana		Telugu
2004	Andalu Dongale Dorikithe	Bujji	Telugu
2004	Aabra Ka Daabra	Himself	Hindi	Special appearance
2005	Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana	Taanga Driver	Telugu	Cameo appearance
2006	Style	Ganesh	Telugu
2006	Chukkallo Chandrudu	Sharat	Telugu
2006	Naayudamma	Prabhu	Telugu
2006	Pournami		Telugu	Cameo appearance
2007	Pokkiri		Tamil	Cameo appearance
2007	Shankardada Zindabad		Telugu	Cameo appearance
2008	Vaana		Telugu	Special appearance
2008	Michael Madana Kamaraju	Michael	Telugu
2009	Villu		Tamil	Cameo appearance
2009	Wanted		Hindi	Cameo appearance
2010	Pa Ra Pazhanisami		Tamil	Cameo appearance
2011	Urumi	Vavvali	Malayalam
2011	Engeyum Kaadhal		Tamil	Special appearance
2012	Dhoni	Himself	Tamil	Special appearance
2012	Rowdy Rathore	Himself	Hindi	Special appearance
2012	Oh My God	Himself	Hindi	Special appearance
2013	ABCD – Any Body Can Dance	Vishnu	Hindi
2013	Kalavadiya Pozhudugal	Porcheziyan	Tamil	Post-production

As choreographer

Year	Title	Language	Notes
1988	Agni Natchathiram	Tamil	as a Group Dancer in Sundaram's choreography
1989	Vetri Vizha	Tamil
1989	Lankeswarudu	Telugu
1989	Siva	Telugu	worked as Assistant Choreographer
1990	Anjali	Telugu
1990	Lorry Driver	Telugu
1990	Pratibandh	Hindi
1990	Raja Vikramarka	Telugu
1990	Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari	Telugu
1991	Idhayam	Tamil
1991	Thalapathi	Tamil
1991	Aditya 369	Telugu
1991	Cooli No1	Telugu
1991	Gang Leader	Telugu
1991	Killer	Telugu	worked as Assistant Choreographer
1991	Kshana Kshanam	Telugu
1991	Nirnayam	Telugu
1991	Satruvu	Telugu
1991	Surya I.P.S	Telugu
1991	Rowdy Alludu	Telugu
1992	Suriyan	Tamil
1992	Aaj Ka Goonda Raj	Hindi
1992	Aapathbaandavudu	Telugu
1992	Antham	Telugu
1992	Brahmma	Telugu
1992	Chinnarayudu	Telugu
1992	Dharma Kshetram	Telugu
1992	Gharana Mogudu	Telugu
1992	Johnny Walker	Malayalam
1992	Rowdy Inspector	Telugu
1992	Sundara Kaanda	Telugu
1993	Chandra Mukhi	Hindi
1993	Gumraah	Hindi
1993	Abbayi Garu	Telugu
1993	Allari Alludu	Telugu
1993	Allari Priyudu	Telugu
1993	Gaayam	Telugu
1993	Govindha Govindha	Telugu
1993	Muta Mesthri	Telugu
1993	Mechanic Alludu	Telugu
1993	Nippu Ravva	Telugu
1993	Prathap	Tamil
1993	Rakshana	Telugu
1993	Vaarasudu	Telugu
1993	Thiruda Thiruda	Tamil
1993	Gentleman	Tamil
1993	Walter Vetrivel	Tamil
1994	Kadhalan	Tamil	Also lead actor
1994	Gaandeevam	Telugu
1994	Raja Babu	Hindi	"Pak Chik Rajababu" song
1994	Hello Brother	Telugu
1994	Mugguru Monagaallu	Telugu
1994	Super Police	Telugu
1995	Bombay	Tamil
1995	Criminal	Telugu
1995	Raasaiyya	Tamil	Also lead actor
1995	Rikshavodu	Telugu
1997	Minsara Kanavu	Tamil	Won National Film Award for Best Choreography
2000	Pukar	Hindi	Nominated for Star Screen Award for Best Choreography.
2000	Pennin Manathai Thottu	Tamil	Features the "Kalluri Vaanil" music video popularly known as "Benny Lava".
2002	Shakti: The Power	Hindi
2002	Baba	Tamil
2002	Agni Varsha	Hindi
2003	Khushi	Hindi
2004	Lakshya	Hindi	Won National Film Award for Best Choreography. Won Filmfare Best Choreography Award. Won Star Screen Award for Best Choreography.
2004	Varsham	Telugu	Won Nandi Award for Best Choreographer.
2004	Samba	Telugu	Title Song only
2005	No Entry	Hindi
2005	Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana	Telugu	Won Filmfare Best Choreography Award (Telugu).
2006	Sillunu Oru Kaadhal	Tamil
2006	Don: The Chase Begins Again	Hindi
2006	Pournami	Telugu
2007	Sivaji: The Boss	Tamil
2007	Pokkiri	Tamil	Also Director
2008	Aegan	Tamil	"Hey Sala" Song only
2009	Wanted	Hindi
2010	Bodyguard	Malayalam
2010	Enthiran	Tamil	"Pudhiya Manidha", "Kadhal Anukkal" & "Arima Arima"
2011	Engeyum Kaadhal	Tamil	Also Director
2012	Rowdy Rathore	Hindi	Also Director
2012	Oh My God	Hindi

External links

• Prabhu Deva at the Internet Movie Database