Prabhu Deva facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Prabhu Deva
Deva at the promotion of Rowdy Rathore in 2012
Born	(1973-04-03) 3 April 1973 (age 52) Mysore, Mysore State, India (present-day Karnataka, India)
Occupation	Actor director dance choreographer producer
Years active	1991–present
Works	Full list
Spouse(s)	Ramlath ​ ​ (m. 1995; div. 2011)​ Himani Singh ​ (m. 2020)​
Children	4
Parent(s)	Mugur Sundar (father)
Relatives	Raju Sundaram (brother) Nagendra Prasad (brother)
Honours	Padma Shri (2019)

Prabhu Deva (born 3 April 1973) is a famous Indian dance choreographer, film director, producer, and actor. He has worked mostly in Tamil, Hindi, and Telugu movies. Over 32 years, he has created and performed many amazing dance styles. He has won two National Film Awards for Best Choreography (meaning he's super good at making dance moves for movies). In 2019, he received the Padma Shri, a special award from the Indian government, for his contributions to dance.

Prabhu Deva started acting in the 1990s. He starred in popular films like Kadhalan (1994), Love Birds (1996), and Minsara Kanavu (1997). After some more successful acting roles, he became a director. He made many hit movies in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi, such as Pokkiri (2007), Wanted (2009), and Rowdy Rathore (2012).

Early Life and Family

Prabhu Deva was born on April 3, 1973, in Mysore, which is now in the Karnataka state of India. His father, Mugur Sundar, was a choreographer for South Indian movies. Inspired by his dad, Prabhu Deva started learning dance. He studied Indian classical dance forms like Bharatanatyam, as well as Western dance styles. His brothers, Raju Sundaram and Nagendra Prasad, are also dancers.

Prabhu Deva first appeared as a young boy playing a flute in a song from the Tamil film Mouna Ragam (1986). He was also a background dancer in Agni Natchathiram (1988). His first job as a choreographer was for the film Vetri Vizha (1989). Since then, he has choreographed dances for over 100 movies! Later, he started acting. In 1999, he performed with a Tamil cinema dance group at a special concert for Michael Jackson in Germany. As of 2010, he leads the Prabhu Deva's Dance Academy in Singapore.

Acting Career Highlights

Early Acting Roles (1993–2004)

After appearing in many songs, Prabhu Deva got his first main acting role in the film Indhu (1994). This movie showed off his amazing dance skills. He became very famous as an actor with Shankar's film, Kadhalan (1994). In this movie, he played a student who stands up to a terrorist. The film was praised for its great technical work and won four National Film Awards. The songs, especially "Mukkabla" and "Urvasi Urvasi," became super popular across India. Kadhalan was the highest-grossing Tamil film of 1994, making Prabhu Deva a big star.

His next films, Love Birds and Mr. Romeo (both 1996), also featured great music and dance. Prabhu Deva earned praise for his role in Rajiv Menon's romantic film Minsara Kanavu (1997). He played a hairstylist who falls in love. This movie also won many awards, and Prabhu Deva won a National Film Award for Best Choreography for the song "Vennilave." Critics loved his performance, calling it "graceful." His film V. I. P. (1997) was also a commercial success.

Prabhu Deva continued to have success with films like Kaathala Kaathala (1998) with Kamal Haasan, and Vaanathaippola (2000). In the early 2000s, he started working on more comedy films. He was praised for his role in Eazhaiyin Sirippil (2000) and had hits with Ullam Kollai Poguthae (2001) and Charlie Chaplin (2002). He also starred with his real-life brothers in One Two Three, The Winners (2002) and in the hit film Engal Anna (2004). During this time, he also acted in films in other languages, like the Kannada film H₂O and the Hindi film Agni Varsha.

Directorial Success and Dance Films (2005–2015)

After becoming a successful director, Prabhu Deva started acting in fewer roles.

The President, Ram Nath Kovind presenting the Padma Shri Award to Prabhu Deva, at an Investiture Ceremony, at Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on 11 March 2019

He played main roles in dance films like Style (2006). He also had a supporting role in the Malayalam historical film Urumi (2011), where his performance was highly praised. He continued to appear in dance films such as ABCD (2013) and its sequel ABCD 2 (2015). These films were popular, and critics noted that Prabhu Deva was not only amazing at dancing but also good at acting in dramatic scenes.

Recent Acting Roles (2016–Present)

Prabhu Deva returned to Tamil cinema as an actor in 2016 with the film Devi. This movie was also made in Hindi and Telugu. After some delays, his film Kalavaadiya Pozhuthugal was released in 2017. He then starred in the comedy film Gulaebaghavali (2018), the silent film Mercury (2018), and the musical dance film Lakshmi (2018).

In 2019, Charlie Chaplin 2 was released, which was a sequel to his 2002 film. He also wrote lyrics for a song in this movie. After that, he appeared in Devi 2, a sequel to Devi. Besides acting, he directed Dabangg 3 (2019) and Radhe (2021), both starring Salman Khan. Prabhu Deva also appeared in the dance film Street Dancer 3D (2020). His 50th film as an actor was Pon Manickavel (2021), where he played a police officer for the first time. In 2022, he had three films: Theal, My Dear Bootham, and Poikkal Kudhirai. In 2023, he gave a strong performance in Bagheera. In 2024, he returned to Kannada cinema in Karataka Damanaka and was cast in the action thriller The Greatest of All Time with Vijay.

Personal Life

Prabhu Deva married Ramlath, who later changed her name to Latha. They had three children. Sadly, their oldest son passed away from cancer in 2008 when he was 13 years old. Prabhu Deva and Ramlath divorced in 2011.

Prabhu Deva later moved to Mumbai. His mother, Mahadevamma, is from a village called Doora, near Mysore. He owns land there and has developed a farm.

In May 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown in India, Prabhu Deva married Himani, a physiotherapist from Mumbai. He was 47 years old at the time. On June 13, 2023, they welcomed their first child together, a baby girl. This is Prabhu Deva's fourth child.

Other Appearances

Deva with Sonakshi Sinha and Akshay Kumar during the promotion for the film Rowdy Rathore

Prabhu Deva has made short appearances in many songs. These include "April Mayile" in Idhayam (1991), "Lallaku Doldapi Ma" in Suriyan (1992), and "Chikku Bukku Rayile" in Gentleman (1993). He performed with Madhuri Dixit in the song "Ke Sera Sera" for the movie Pukar. He also acted with Lawrence Raghavendra in the 2006 Telugu film Style. He performed with Apache Indian in the song "No Problem" for his film Love Birds.

Prabhu Deva's performance at IPL Season 5 opening ceremony

He performed in the film Aabra Ka Daabra for the song "Om Sh". He also performed in the film Shakti: The Power (2002) for a song. He made a special appearance in his own directed film Pokkiri with Vijay in the song "Aadungada." He performed again with Vijay in his film Villu for the song "Hey Rama." He also performed with Bollywood actors Salman Khan and Govinda for a song in his 2009 directed film Wanted.

Prabhu Deva performed at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Indian Premier League (IPL) on April 3 in Chennai. He shared the stage with many big stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, and Katy Perry. This event was extra special because it was also his 39th birthday!

Filmography

Honours

Awards

See also

In Spanish: Prabhu Deva para niños