Mugur Sundar is a dance choreographer in

South Indian cinema The Cinema of South India refers collectively to the six distinct film industries based in Southern region of India namely Tamil, Telugu, Tulu, Kannada, Konkani, and Malayalam. Although these industries developed independently for a long ...

Early life

Sundar was born in Mugur, a village located in

Mysore district Mysore district, officially Mysuru district is an administrative district located in the southern part of the state of Karnataka, India. It is the administrative headquarters of Mysore division.Chamarajanagar district, Chamarajanagar District wa ...

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

. He has three sons,

Prabhu Deva Prabhu Deva (born 3 April 1973) is an Indian dance choreographer, film director, producer and actor who has worked predominantly in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, and Kannada language films. In a career spanning 32 years, he has performed and designed a ...

Raju Sundaram Basuva Raju Sundaram is an Indian dance choreographer, actor and director, who works primarily in Tamil, Kannada and Telugu films. He appeared as an actor in films such as but not limited to: ''Jeans'' (1998), '' 123'' (2002), ''I Love You Da' ...

and

Nagendra Prasad Nagendra Prasad Sundaram (born 19 December 1975) is an Indian dance choreographer and actor who works in Tamil and Kannada films (as a lead actor). He is the youngest son of dance master Mugur Sundar, and younger brother to popular cine arti ...

, who are established dance masters and have also worked in

Kollywood Tamil cinema, also known as Kollywood is a part of Indian Cinema; primarily engaged in production of motion pictures in the Tamil language. Based out of the Kodambakkam neighbourhood in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, it is popularly called ''Kollywood' ...

films. All the three are distinct actors also and Prabhudeva is currently a successful Director as well.

Career

He worked in Chandamama Press in Chennai for a salary of Rs.40 per month. He learnt dancing by paying Rs.10. In 1962 he got a chance to be a group dancer in the movie ''

Konjum Salangai ''Konjum Salangai'' () is a 1962 Indian Tamil-language musical dance film directed by M. V. Raman. The film stars Gemini Ganesan, Savitri, R. S. Manohar and Kumari Kamala. It was released on 14 January 1962. The film was dubbed into Telug ...

''. He worked as assistant to Thangappan master for four years. He has worked in Tamil cinema in his over four decade long career. He joined the film industry in the late 1970s and is quite active since the early 1980s. He was a busy choreographer in the 1980s and has worked with almost all leading actors since the early 1980s.

Aarada Gaaya ''Aarada Gaaya'' is a 1980 Indian Kannada-language action film, written by M. D. Sundar and directed by V. Somashekhar. It was produced under the banner of Vijayashekar Movies. Shankar Nag, Gayatri, Sowcar Janaki and Kanchana appeared in pivo ...

released in 1980 is one of his earliest credited works. It was followed by Preethisi Nodu,

Prachanda Putanigalu ''Prachanda Putanigalu'' ( kn, ಪ್ರಚಂಡ ಪುಟಾಣಿಗಳು) is a Kannada films of 1981, 1981 Cinema of India, Indian Kannada language, Kannada film, directed by Geethapriya and produced by M. K. Balaji Singh. The film stars Ma ...

, Anupama,

Nee Nanna Gellalare ''Nee Nanna Gellalare'' is a 1981 Indian Kannada-language film directed by Vijay and produced by S.A. Srinivas. The film stars Rajkumar and Manjula . Though the movie managed to recover its budget, the movie's performance is considered to be ...

Keralida Simha ''Keralida Simha'' () is a 1981 Indian Kannada-language film directed by Chi Dattaraj. The film stars Rajkumar, Saritha, Thoogudeepa Srinivas, Pandari Bai and Srinivasa Murthy. The movie was produced by P. H. Ramarao in the banner of Sri Rajara ...

are some of his early works. He was active in the film industry till the mid-2000s. He choreographed for about 1000 movies, in a career spanning to about three decades.

Other roles

In 2001, he directed his first Kannada film '' Manasella Neene'', a remake of Telugu film ''

Manasantha Nuvve ''Manasantha Nuvve'' is a 2001 Indian Telugu-language romantic drama film directed by V. N. Aditya. This film stars Uday Kiran and Reema Sen in the lead roles. The film was written and produced by M. S. Raju and had music composed by R. P. ...

''. his son

played a lead role in the film.Prabhu Deva's dad turns director
Articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com (2001-12-13). Retrieved on 2013-10-28. Sundar played a guest role in a Kannada film ''Thabbali'' (2009) and also later in ''

Jani Jani may refer to: * Jani (given name), a male name in Finland, Hungary; a female name in South Africa * Réka Luca Jani, a Hungarian female tennis player * Jani (letter), a Georgian letter * Jani, Iran, a village in Sistan and Baluchestan Province, ...

'' (2017) and he choreographed a song for the former film. He portrayed lead role in a Tamil film called '' Pa. Ra. Palanisamy'' (2010).

Television

He was One of the judges in the famous Dance show AATA 4 which is telecast on Zee Telugu, a Telugu channel. Sundaram donned the role of a judge on Vijay TV's popular show Jodi No.1, Jodi No.1 Season Two where the participants are television artistes. His fellow judges were

Silambarasan Silambarasan Thesingu Rajendar, nicknamed as Simbu or his initials S. T. R., is an Indian actor, filmmaker and musician in Tamil cinema. He began his acting career by playing roles as a child artist in films directed by his father T. Rajendar, b ...

and Sangeetha.

Filmography

Awards

;

National Film Awards The National Film Awards is the most prominent film award ceremony in India. Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India and the Indian Panorama, by the Indian government's Directorat ...

*He Won the

National Film Award for Best Choreography The National Film Award for Best Choreography is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organization set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India. It is one of several awards pr ...

for his work In the movie

Thiruda Thiruda ''Thiruda Thiruda'' () is a 1993 Indian Tamil-language black comedy caper film directed by Mani Ratnam written along with Ram Gopal Varma. The film stars Prashanth, Anand, Anu Aggarwal and Heera Rajagopal while S. P. Balasubrahmanyam and Salim ...

in 1993. ;

Filmfare Awards South Filmfare Awards South is the South Indian segment of the annual Filmfare Awards, presented by the Filmfare magazine of The Times Group to honour both artistic and technical excellence of professionals in the Indian film industry encompassing ...

Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award – South The Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award is given by the ''Filmfare'' magazine as part of its annual Filmfare Awards South ceremony. Recipients Notes References General * Specific External links 55th Filmfare Awards South Winners {{DEFA ...

(1999) ;

Nandi Awards The Nandi Awards are the awards that recognise the excellence in Telugu cinema, Telugu theatre and Telugu television, and Lifetime achievements in Indian cinema. Presented annually by the Government of Andhra Pradesh, the award is named after ...

(in

Telugu Telugu may refer to: * Telugu language, a major Dravidian language of India *Telugu people, an ethno-linguistic group of India * Telugu script, used to write the Telugu language ** Telugu (Unicode block), a block of Telugu characters in Unicode S ...

) * Best Choreographer - Geethanjali (1989) * Best Choreographer -

Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari ''Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari'' (), also known by the initialism ''JVAS'', is a 1990 Indian Telugu-language fantasy film directed by K. Raghavendra Rao who co-wrote the script with Jandhyala and Yandamuri Veerendranath. The film stars Chir ...

(1990) ;

Vijay Awards The Vijay Awards are presented by the Tamil television channel STAR Vijay to honour excellence in Tamil cinema. It has been given annually since 2006, with the latest—the 10th edition—of the award-giving ceremony having been held in ...

Vijay Award for Contribution to Tamil Cinema The Vijay for Contribution to Tamil Cinema is given by STAR Vijay as part of its annual Vijay Awards ceremony for Tamil films. The list Here is a list of the award winners and the films for which they won. See also * Tamil cinema Tamil ...

in 2010.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sundar, Mugur Kannada film directors Indian male film actors Indian film choreographers Living people Male actors from Mysore Dancers from Karnataka Artists from Mysore Film people from Karnataka 20th-century Indian dancers 1938 births Best Choreography National Film Award winners