Prabhu Deva

Prabhu Deva is an Indian dance choreographer, film director, producer and actor. He has worked predominantly in Tamil, Hindi, and Telugu language films. In 2019, he was awarded the Padma Shri for his contributions to dance.

About Prabhu Deva in brief

Summary Prabhu DevaPrabhu Deva is an Indian dance choreographer, film director, producer and actor. He has worked predominantly in Tamil, Hindi, and Telugu language films. In 2019, he was awarded the Padma Shri for his contributions to dance. Deva was born in Mysore of present-day Karnataka state on 3 April 1973 to Mugur Sundar and Mahadevamma Sundar. He took up dancing, learning Indian classical dance forms such as Bharatanatyam from Dharmaraj and Udupi Lakshminarayanan as well as Western styles. His first venture as a choreographer was the Kamal Haasan starrer Vetri Vizha. He has since then choreographed for over 100 movies. From choreography, he went into acting. In 1999, Deva, Shobhana and A. R. Rahman performed with a Tamil cinema dancing troupe at the Michael Jackson tribute concert in Munich, Germany. After a series of cameo appearances in songs from Tamil films, PrabhuDeva was given his first lead role by director Pavithran in the romantic drama film Indhu. His ability to dance was fully utilised in the song sequences, with gaana and disco music thereafter being regularly featured in his films.

He won critical acclaim for his role in Rajiv Menon’s romantic drama Minsara Kanavu, where he portrayed a young woman who attracts the attention of a streetwise woman. He also appeared in a double role alongside Shpail Sheil and Madil Shetty in the film Thehoo. His next project Raasaiyyya garnered poor box office collections, but he continued to attract big-budget films and worked with Mr. Rahman in Love Birds and Mr. Romeo. In 1996, Love Birds received a wide theatrical release in London and won positive reviews for his portrayal of a young street girl. The music and dance portions of both films were praised by critics, though both endured middling performances at the box office. He then successfully ventured into direction with the 2005 Telugu film Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana, and the success of the project prompted further offers for Deva as a director. His films include Pokkiri, Shankar Dada Zindabad, Wanted, Rowdy Rathore, R… Rajkumar and Singh is Bling.