Prabhu Deva filmography

Prabhu Deva at the success party of his film Rowdy Rathore in 2012

Prabhu Deva is an Indian dance choreographer, film director, producer and actor, who has worked in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada films. In a career spanning 30 years, he has performed and designed a wide range of dancing styles and has predominantly acted in Tamil films. He made his debut as a boy playing a flute in the song "Panivizhum Iravu", from the Tamil film Mouna Ragam (1986).[1] After several appearances as a dancer, he made his debut as a lead actor in Pavithran's Indhu. He made his career breakthrough in his second film Kadhalan (1994) directed by S. Shankar. Prabhu Deva acted as a college student who loves the daughter of state governor, who has ties with a terrorist. The film was a commercial success and critics lauded Prabhu Deva's choreography and his dance sequences in the songs "Mukkabla" and "Urvasi Urvasi", became very popular.[2][3]

Prabhu Deva featured in several commercially successful films like Minsara Kanavu (1997) and VIP (1997), where for the former he went on to win the National Film Award for Best Choreography for his work in the songs "Strawberry Kannae" and "Vennilave".[4] He was critically acclaimed for his performance in the comedy Kaathala Kaathala (1998), co-starring with Kamal Haasan.[5][6] Despite the successful ventures like Eazhaiyin Sirippil (2000) and Sundar C's Ullam Kollai Poguthae (2001), Deva was unable to recreate the success he had in his earlier years and many of his films didn't perform well financially.[7]

In the year 2005, Prabhu Deva made his debut as a director in the Telugu film Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana.[8] The film received critical acclaim and went on to become a blockbuster. The film was remade in seven languages and it is considered as the first Indian movie to do so. The movie won 9 Filmfare awards including a Best Choreographer award for Prabhudeva.[9] Following the success of his directorial ventures, Deva started to prioritize directing to acting. Occasionally he starred as a lead in dance films like Style (2006), ABCD (2013) and its sequel ABCD 2 (2015).[10][11]

Prabhu Deva established the production company Prabhu Deva Studios and produced the film Devi, which was directed by A. L. Vijay in the year 2016. The film marked the return of Deva to Tamil cinema as an actor after a 11-year hiatus.[12] The film was acclaimed critically and was a financial success at the box office. After the success of the film, Deva appeared in Gulaebaghavali, silent film Mercury and Lakshmi in the year 2018.[13][14] In the year 2019, Deva had a line up of sequel films including Charlie Chaplin 2, a sequel to Deva's Charlie Chaplin, and Devi 2.[15][16] Both the films were met with negative reviews and failed commercially.[17][18]

Key
† Denotes films that have not yet been released
  1. ^ "இதுதான் நான் 18: மணி சார் கையால் வாங்கிய 'மணி' – தி இந்து". 3 September 2016. Archived from the original on 3 September 2016. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  2. ^ N.A. (1995). SUNDAY( JANUARY–MAY )1995. ANANDA BAZAR PATRIKA LTD, CALCUTTA.
  3. ^ "Prabhudeva – Kaadhalan | A.R.Rahman and the top heroes". Behindwoods.com. Archived from the original on 11 June 2016. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  4. ^ "44th National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. Archived (PDF) from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  5. ^ "Here are five films that show Prabhudheva is more than just a dancer". The Indian Express. 3 April 2018. Archived from the original on 16 November 2019. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  6. ^ Kannan, Ramya (18 April 2004). "An intelligent top star". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  7. ^ "Film Review: Eazhaiyin Sirippil". The Hindu. 11 February 2000. ISSN 0971-751X. Archived from the original on 30 April 2022. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  8. ^ "Movie Review: Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana". Sify. Archived from the original on 8 April 2019. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  9. ^ "Prabhu Deva birthday: These intriguing facts about India's Michael Jackson will make you adore him more | Entertainment News". Timesnownews.com. Archived from the original on 4 April 2019. Retrieved 3 November 2019.
  10. ^ "Prabhudeva to hike his price post 'ABCD' success". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 13 February 2022. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  11. ^ Gupta, Priya. "Varun Dhawan's character in ABCD2 based on the life of India's Got Talent winner Suresh Mukund". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 9 September 2019. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  12. ^ DNA Web (31 March 2016). "Tamannaah to act with Prabhu Deva in a trilingual film". DNA India. Archived from the original on 22 June 2019. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  13. ^ "Prabhudheva's Tamil costume drama Gulebakavali gets face-lift after Baahubali". The Indian Express. 31 July 2017. Archived from the original on 16 November 2019. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  14. ^ Gleiberman, Owen (12 April 2018). "Film Review: 'Mercury'". Variety. Archived from the original on 18 June 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  15. ^ Sundar, Mrinalini. "Prabhudheva and Nikki Galrani team up for Charlie Chaplin 2". The Times of India. Archived from the original on 4 April 2020. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  16. ^ "Devi 2 goes on floors- Cinema express". Archive.ph. 21 September 2018. Archived from the original on 21 September 2018. Retrieved 16 November 2019.
  17. ^ "Charlie Chaplin 2 Review {2.5/5}: Though the movie provides laughs in certain sequences as expected, the logic goes for a toss several times", The Times of India, retrieved 16 November 2019
  18. ^ "Devi 2 (aka) Devii 2 review". Behindwoods.com. 1 June 2019. Archived from the original on 1 June 2019. Retrieved 16 November 2019.