Prabhu Deva Sundaram ( , )
(born 3 April 1973) is an Indian
dancer, choreographer,
actor and film
director. He has been called "India's
Michael Jackson" for his fast-paced dance
movements, though he has given performances in a wide range of
dancing styles.
While he is mainly involved in
Tamil cinema, he has also contributed
to filmmaking in other
Indian film
industries, including
Telugu cinema,
Kannada cinema, and
Hindi cinema. He has won a number of awards for
his elaborate dance sequences, including two
National Awards for
Best Choreography (holding the record for the most Best
Choreography awards alongside
Saroj
Khan), a
Filmfare
Best Choreography Award, and a
Filmfare Best
Choreography Award . He has recently debuted in Bollywood as a
director with the blockbuster
Wanted.
Personal life
Prabhu
Deva was born in a Kannadiga family in
Mysore
, Karnataka
on 3 April 1973 and grew up in Alwarpet
, Chennai
, Tamil Nadu
. He was inspired by his father,
Mugur Sundar, who was a dance master for
popular
South Indian movies. He took
dancing as his career and passion, by learning
Indian dances such as
Bharatanatyam as well as Western dance styles.
His brothers
Raju Sundaram and
Nagendra Prasad are also established
South-Indian choreographers. From choreography he went on to
establish himself as an actor. His dance steps helped him become a
star in
Kollywood (the
Tamil film industry). His first movie as a dance
director was
Vetri Vizha. He has since choreographed over
100 movies. Before starting as a full time actor, he appeared as a
background dancer for a song in the
Tamil
Film Agni Natchathiram. His
first movie as a hero was in Indhu (1994) with actress
Roja. Deva's success resulted largely from his dancing.
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
has a significant fan following in the
Tamil,
Telugu and
Kannada film industry. He acted alongside
his brothers in the movie
123.
Prabhu Deva is married to Latha and they have three sons - Vishal
Deva (born as Basavaraju), Rishi Raghavendra Deva and Aditya
Deva.
Deva's 12 year old son Vishal Deva died on 4 December 2008. He was
suffering from cancer for a long time. Vishal originally named as
Basavaraju, was the eldest amongst the three siblings.
Other appearances
- Prabhu Deva was also noticed when he 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 Raiyle in Gentleman (1993).
- He danced with Madhuri Dixit for
the song Que Sera Sera in the movie Pukar.
- He acted along with Lawrence
Raghavendra in the hit movie Style.
- He has danced 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 also danced in the film Abra Ka
Dabra for the song Om Sh.
- He also danced in the Nana Patekar - Karisma Kapoor film
Shakti for a song.
- He danced with Vijay in Villu movie for the song Hey Rama. This was a guest
appearance.
- He appeared in a song sequence with superstar Rajinikanth in
the Tamil movie 'Baba'.
Awards
Benny Lava
In 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 (Youtuber Buffalax). The video was created as a
soramimi, edited to include incorrect
English
subtitles that approximate the
original
Tamil lyrics
phonetically.
The name
Benny Lava comes from Sutton's subtitling
of the Tamil lead line "
Kalluri vaanil kaayndha nilaavo?"
as "
My loony bun is fine, Benny Lava!" (original meaning:
The moon (metaphor for 'babe') that scorched the college campus").
The video led other Youtube users to refer to Prabhu Deva as "Benny
Lava". The video was inspired after Sutton watched
Moskau by German
pop-band Dschinghis
Khan. One of Sutton's friends "wished he could understand the
song so he could sing along." Sutton thought the real translation
would be difficult and instead used English lyrics that replicated
the German song. Reception to the video was mixed; Some felt that
the video was done in "good fun" while others worried that their
culture was being mocked. The video was described by the
Philippine Daily Inquirer as a
"Catchy melody, a battalion of back-up dancers, colorful costumes,
impressive vocal gymnastics, jaw-dropping choreography this music
video has it all. And if those arent enough, the person who
uploaded this vid also provided subtitles so you can sing along.
They arent the real lyrics though, but just what they sound in
English, resulting in a lot of nonsense. - - " The music video was
also featured on
The Colbert
Report on 4 December 2008.
Filmography
As actor
As choreographer
As director
References
- http://www.rediff.com/entertai/2000/jun/14spice.htm
-
http://www.hindu.com/fr/2007/02/02/stories/2007020201460300.htm
- http://www.rediff.com/movies/2001/jan/04prabhu.htm
-
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Actor_Prabhu_Devas_son_Vishal_dead/articleshow/3794648.cms
External links
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