Prabhu Deva is an Indian dance choreographer, film director and actor, who has worked in Tamil, Telugu, Bollywood, Malayalam and Kannada films. In a career spanning twenty-five years, he has performed and designed a wide range of dancing styles and has garnered two National Film Awards for Best Choreography.
Beginning with a series of acting roles in the 1990s and early 2000s, Prabhu Deva featu...Prabhu Deva is an Indian dance choreographer, film director and actor, who has worked in Tamil, Telugu, Bollywood, Malayalam and Kannada films. In a career spanning twenty-five years, he has performed and designed a wide range of dancing styles and has garnered two National Film Awards for Best Choreography.
Beginning with a series of acting roles in the 1990s and early 2000s, Prabhu Deva featured in several commercially successful films including Kadhalan (1994), Minsara Kanavu (1997) and VIP (1997). After further critically acclaimed performances in the comedy Kaathala Kaathala (1998) and the family drama Vanathai Pola (2000), Deva then failed to recreate the success of his earlier films and his box office value began to decline and he subsequently made appearances in supporting roles and low budget Telugu language films. 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. He then went on to make highly profitable films in Telugu, Hindi and Tamil languages such as Pokkiri (2007), Wanted (2009), Rowdy Rathore (2012) and Singh is Bling (2015).
Prabhu Deva 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 Udupi Lakshminarayanan as well as Western styles. Raju Sundaram and Nagendra Prasad are his brothers.
Prabhu Deva married Ramlath who changed her name to Latha. They had three children, but their eldest son died of cancer in 2008. In 2010 his wife filed a petition at the family court, seeking directions against Deva from live-in relationship with the actress Nayantara and requesting a reunion with him. 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. In 2012, Nayantara confirmed that she had ended her relationship with Prabhu Deva.
