Mugur Sundar (born 31 October 1935) is a dance choreographer, film director and actor in

South Indian cinema Cinema of South India, refers to the cinema of the four major film industries in South India; primarily engaged in making feature films in the four major Dravidian languages of the region, namely Telugu cinema, Telugu, Tamil Cinema, Tamil, Ma ...

Early life

Sundar was born in Muguru, a village located in Mysore district,

Karnataka Karnataka ( ) is a States and union territories of India, state in the southwestern region of India. It was Unification of Karnataka, formed as Mysore State on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956, States Re ...

. 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 language, Tamil, Hindi and Telugu language, Telugu language films also appeared in few Kannada and Malayal ...

, Raju Sundaram and Nagendra Prasad, who are established dance masters and have also worked in 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''. 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 released in 1980 is one of his earliest credited works. It was followed by Preethisi Nodu, Prachanda Putanigalu, Anupama, Nee Nanna Gellalare, Keralida Simha 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''. his son Nagendra Prasad 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'' (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 (born 3 February 1984), popularly known as Simbu or by his initials as STR, is an Indian actor, producer, and playback singer who primarily works in Tamil cinema. He is the eldest son of director T. Rajendar. ...

and Sangeetha.

Filmography

Awards

;

National Film Awards The National Film Awards are awards for artistic and technical merit given for "Excellence within the Cinema of India, Indian film industry". Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India ...

*He Won the National Film Award for Best Choreography for his work In the movie Thiruda Thiruda in 1993. ;

Filmfare Awards South The Filmfare Awards South are annual awards that honour artistic and technical excellence in the Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema, Malayalam cinema and Kannada cinema. They are presented by ''Filmfare'' magazine of The Times Group. When it was intr ...

* Filmfare Lifetime Achievement Award – South (1999) ;

Nandi Awards The Nandi Awards are annual awards presented by the Government of Andhra Pradesh to recognise excellence in Telugu cinema, theatre, and television, as well as lifetime achievements in Indian cinema. The awards are named after the monolithic ...

(in Telugu) * Best Choreographer - Geethanjali (1989) * Best Choreographer - Jagadeka Veerudu Athiloka Sundari (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 i ...

* Vijay Award for Contribution to Tamil Cinema 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