Prabhu Deva

Prabhu Deva, nicknamed Deva, had first appeared as a boy playing the flute in the Tamil film ‘Mouna Ragam’ in 1986.He later appeared as a background dancer for a song in a Tamil film released in 1988. The film was Agni Natchathiram.

Prabhu Deva’s first venture as a choreographer was for a dance scene in the Kamal Haasan starrer Vetri Vizha in 1989.Thereafter he continued to choreograph over 100 movies, spanning across two to three decades.In 1999, he got a break as an actor.

Prabhu Deva, along with Shobhana and A. R. Rahman, performed with the Tamil Cinema’s dancing troupe at Michael Jackson’s tribute concert called the MJ & Friends in Munich, Germany.

In 2010 he started the Prabhu Deva’s Dance Academy in Singapore and was the chairman and director of the academy.

With a flourishing career spanning across 32 years, he has performed various styles of dancing designed by him and has garnered two National Film Awards for Best Choreography.He is not just a choreographer; he is also a film director, producer, and actor and has worked mostly in Tamil, Hindi, and Telugu language films and has also appeared in a few of the Kannada and Malayalam movies. 

In 2019, Prabhu Deva was awarded the Padma Shri Award for his contribution to the field of dance. 

Deva acted between 1990 and 2000, and most of his films in regional languageswere successful films. He then went on to make highly profitable films in Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi, such as Pokkiri in 2007 and Shankar Dada Zindabad in the same year.He also was star cast in the Hindi films Wanted in 2009, Rowdy Rathore in 2012, R... Rajkumar in 2013, and Singh Is Bling in 2015. 

He was a supporting star cast in Tamil films simultaneously.After a series of cameo appearances in songs and dance sequences, Deva made his debut in the lead role in the film Indhu in 1994, directed by Pavithran. A romantic drama alongside actresses Roja and Sarathkumar.

Deva became popular for his disco music and dances featured in his films. He made a breakthrough in the romantic film Kaadhalan in 1994, along with actor Shankar’s sophomore film, in which he portrayed a young student who fights against the International Terrorist. The film won him four National Film Awards. 

His dance and song Mukkabla and Urvasi Urvasi became a super hit and popular across India. The film had relatively few newcomers, but the film had become one of the highest-grossing Tamil films of 1994 and was a commercially successful film. The film was also dubbed in Telugu and Hindi versions, creating a market for the Bollywood industry and other regional film industries. 

His other project was Raasaiyya in 1995, and he worked in two more films in 1996. Love Birds, Mr. Romeo, which was shot extensively in London.Love Birds had received a wide theatrical release across India and overseas, for which he won positive reviews. He played a double role alongside Shilpa Shetty and Madhoo.The music and dance in the film endured average performance at the box office. 

Prabhu Deva won critical acclaim for his role in Minsara Kanavu in 1997. He thereafterwon many awards for his films, such as V.I.P. in 1997, and this big-budget Hindi and Tamil production, Mazhai Vara Poguthey, alongside Juhi Chawla.The film was later shelved. 

In 1998, Deva had commercial success with the film Kaathala Kaathala , co-starring with Kamal Haasan , Ninaivirkkum Varai in 1999, and he subsequently featured in the Guinness World Record for setting the film Suyamaram in 1999 and the successful family drama film Vaanathaippola by Vikraman in 2000, which earned him praise for his dramatic abilities. 

Deva actively began working on small-budget comedy films since 2000 and went on to produce, direct, and act in many of them.He also had a film with his brothers Raju Sundaram and Nagendra Prasad and actress Jyothika in The Winners in 2002.   His other films were Fazhaiyin Sirippil in 2000, Ullam Kollai Poguthae in 2001, and Charlie Chaplin in 2002. Many of his films in this period did not do well financially for him. 

He did a lot of offbeat roles in Kannada film and the Hindi film Agni Varsha in 2002 with Amitabh Bachchan. Deva continued his extensive work in multi-starrer films as the second lead actor in films like Santosham in 2002, Kalyana Ramudu in 2003, and Andaru Dongale Dorikite in 2004. 

He had successful directorial ventures, and Deva had started appearing as an actor in fewer films. He was portrayed as the lead in the dance film ‘Style’ in 2006. 

Prabhu Deva then made the occasional appearance and had a leading role in his commercially successful film ABDC 2013 and its sequel ABCD 2 in 2015, which were regarded as the best dance films by the critics. 

Prabhu Deva is not only good at dancing; his acting skills are much appreciated, and he is especially known for his dramatic scenes in the ABCD sequels.

Prabhu Deva returned to the Tamil cinema after a span of 11 years and joined hands with director A. L. Vijay. Many of his other films, such as Kalayaadirya Pozhutugal, Tutak Tutak Tutiya, Mercury, Gulaebaghavali, Lakshmi (2018), Charli Chaplin 2 (2018), and Devi 2, a sequel to his earlier film Devi. Abhinetri 2, Khamoshi.

He also directed Dabangg 3 in 2019.Deva was also a part of Remo D’Souza’s dance flick Street Dancer 3D in 2020.He directed Salman Khan in Radhe in 2021, which was a remake of the South Korean film The Outlaws (2017). 

His 50th film in which he has acted was Poon Manickavel in 2021.He had three releases that year , Theal, My Dear Bootham, and Poikkal Kudhiraj.His intense performance in the film Bagheera 2023, despite his powerful role, had average reviews. 

In 2024, Deva acted in Kannada cinema after a very long time and shared the screen with Shiva Rajkumar for the period film Karataka Dhamanaka.He was also cast in the action thriller film , The Greatest of All Time, directed by Venkat Prabhu. 

His other prominent exposures were Aabra Ka Daabra for the song ‘Om Sh,’ and he performed in Shakti: The Power, released in 2002, starring Nana Patekar and Karisma Kapoor. He also performed in the Kannada film H2O. He made a special appearance in Pokkiri, which was directed by himself. He was in the song ‘Aagungada’ . He directed the film Villu for the song ‘Hey Rama,’ in which he also made a guest appearance. 

Deva performed with Bollywood actors such as Govinda and Salma Khan for the 2009 song sequence in the directorial film Wanted. 

Prabhu Deva performed at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Indian Premier League on 3rd April in Chennai alongside Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, and American songwriter-cum-singer Katy Perry. The event was special, for Prabhu Deva had celebrated his 39th birthday on the same day.