Prabhu Deva

Prabhu Deva
Born	Prabhudheva Sundaram (1973-04-03) 3 April 1973[1] Mysore, Karnataka, India
Occupation	Film actor, director, dance choreographer
Years active	1988—present
Spouse(s)	Ramlath (1995–2010)
Partner(s)	Nayantara (2010–2012)
Relatives	Raju Sundaram (brother) Nagendra Prasad (brother)

Prabhu Deva, often credited as Prabhudheva is an Indian film actor, director and dance choreographer^[2] known for his works predominantly in Tamil, Telugu cinema, Bollywood, Malayalam and Kannada films. In a career spanning twenty-five years, He has performed and designed a wide range of dancing styles. He has garnered two National Film Awards for Best Choreography, and has been widely referred in the media as India's Michael Jackson.^[3]

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 Dheva ventured into direction with 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), Rowdy Rathore (2012) and R... Rajkumar.^[4]

Early life and career

Prabhu Dheva was inspired by his father, Mugur Sundar, a choreographer for South Indian movies, and took up dancing learning Indian classical dance forms such as Bharatanatyam from Dharmaraj and Udipi Lakshminarayanan^[5] as well as Western styles. Raju Sundaram and Nagendra Prasad are his brothers.

Prabhu Deva first appeared as a background dancer for a song in the 1988 Tamil film Agni Natchathiram. Deva's first venture as a choreographer was Vetri Vizha (1989). He has since then choreographed in over 100 movies. From choreography, he went into acting. His first film as an actor was Kadhalan (1994) with actress Nagma. In 1999, Dheva, 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 Prabhudheva's Dance Academy in Singapore.^[6] He planned to release his first video album called It is boring in 2013.^[7] He also played the lead role in ABCD (Any Body Can Dance), the first 3D dance film in India.^[8]

Personal life

Prabhu Dheva married Ramlath who changed her name to Latha; they had three children – their eldest son died of cancer in 2008.^[9][10] In 2010 his wife filed a petition at the family court, seeking directions against Dheva from live in relationship with the actress Nayantara and requesting a reunion with him.^[11][12] Furthermore, Ramalath threatened to go on hunger strike if Prabhu Dheva married Nayantara, while several women's organizations conducted protests against Nayantara for bringing disrepute to Tamil culture, burning an effigy of her.^[13] In 2012, Nayantara confirmed that she had ended her relationship with Prabhu Deva.^{[14][15][16][17]}

Prabhu Dheva has moved to Mumbai and is residing at Boney Kapoor's old place in Green Acres.^[18]

Other appearances

Prabhu Dheva's performance at IPL Season 5 opening ceremony

• Prabhu Dheva made brief appearances in solo items such as "April Mayile" in Idhayam (1991), "Lallaku Doldapi Ma" in Suriyan (1992), "Chinna Rasave" in Walter Vetrivel (1993), and "Chikku Bukku Rayile" in Gentleman (1993) after appearing as group dancer in songs like "Rajathi Raja" in Agni Natchathiram (1988).
• 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 Upendra in H2O
• 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 Dheva as the actor shared his 39th birthday on the same day.^[19][20]
• He appeared with Shahid Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha on Bigg Boss 7 to promote his film R...Rajkumar!

Awards

National Film Awards

• National Film Award for Best Choreography – Minsaara Kanavu (1997)
• National Film Award for Best Choreography – Lakshya (2004)

Nandi Awards

• Nandi Award for Best Choreographer for Varsham (2004)

Vijay Awards

• Vijay Award for Favourite Director (2005)

Filmfare Awards

• Filmfare Best Choreography Award – Lakshya (2004)

Filmfare Awards South

• Filmfare Award for Best Dance Choreographer – South – Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana (2005)

Star Screen Awards

• Star Screen Award for Best Choreography – Lakshya (2004)

Other honors

• Mathrubhumi Award for Best Director in Tamil for the film Pokkiri.
• life membership at the International Film and Television Research Centre of the Asian Academy of Film & Television by Sandeep Marwah.

Soramimi spoof

	Kalluri Vaanil The Tamil song became widely known to the English internet audience for its phonetic lyrics.
Problems playing this file? See media help.

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).^[21] 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.^[21] The music video was featured on The Colbert Report on 4 December 2008^[22] and appeared on the Heavy Metal documentary Global Metal.

Filmography

As director

As actor

As choreographer

As singer

References

External links

• Prabhu Deva at the Internet Movie Database