Sudha Kongara Prasad, known professionally as Sudha Kongara, is an Indian film director and screenwriter who predominantly works in Tamil. She made her directorial debut with the Tamil film '' ''Drohi''''. In 2016, she directed the bilingual ( in

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

) for which she won the Filmfare Award for Best Director – Tamil. She subsequently directed the film's Telugu remake, ''

Guru Guru ( ; International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''guru'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan-Indian religions, Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: tr ...

'' (2017). In her career, working over 3 languages, she has won two

National Film Award 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 ...

s, two

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 ...

, two

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards Tamil Nadu State Film Awards were given for excellence in Cinema of Tamil Nadu, Tamil cinema in India. They were given annually to honour the best talents and provide encouragement and incentive to the South Indian film industry by the Governmen ...

and two SIIMA Awards. In 2020, she scripted, and directed ''

Soorarai Pottru ''Soorarai Pottru'' () is a 2020 Indian Tamil language, Tamil-language Drama (film and television), drama film directed by Sudha Kongara, who wrote the screenplay with Shalini Usha Nair. The film, co-produced by Suriya and Jyothika of 2D Entert ...

''. It was featured in the Panorama Section of the

Shanghai International Film Festival The Shanghai International Film Festival (SIFF, , French: ''Festival international du film de Shanghai'') is the largest film festival in Asia and China's longest-running international cinema event. The first festival was established in Octobe ...

. At the

68th National Film Awards The 68th National Film Awards ceremony was an event during which the Directorate of Film Festivals presented its annual National Film Awards to honour the best films of 2020 in Indian cinema. The awards ceremony was originally slated to be hel ...

, it won five awards including Best Feature Film, and Best Screenplay for Sudha Kongara.

Early life

Sudha Kongara was born in

Vijayawada Vijayawada ( ), formerly known by its colonial name Bezawada, is the second largest city and a major commercial hub in the Andhra Pradesh state of India. The city forms an integral part of the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region and is situated on th ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

, into a Telugu-speaking family. Sudha grew up in

Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...

. She obtained a degree in History and Mass Communication from the

Women's Christian College, Chennai Women's Christian College is a reputed interdenominational women's colleges, women's college on College Road, Nungambakkam, in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. History The Women's Christian College was founded in 1915 with 41 students and 7 faculty ...

Career

Kongara worked as a screenwriter for the English film ''

Mitr, My Friend ''Mitr, My Friend'' is a 2002 Indian English-language drama film directed by Revathi in her directorial debut, and written by V. Priya and Sudha Kongara. The film stars Shobana, Nasir Abdullah and Preeti Vissa. Set partly in India and the US the f ...

'' (2002). She worked as associate director for seven years with

Mani Ratnam Gopalaratnam Subramaniam (born 2 June 1956), known professionally as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, film producer and screenwriter who predominantly works in Tamil cinema and a few Hindi, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada films. H ...

. During the production of her first Tamil directorial venture '' Drohi'' (2010), Kongara began writing a sports drama film on boxing which was titled . In mid-2013, she approached Madhavan, who was on a sabbatical from Tamil films, to portray the lead role in the film and his presence in the project, helped take the financial viability of the venture to a higher level. The pair had previously collaborated in Madhavan's films under the direction of

, where Sudha had been an associate director. Madhavan portrayed a boxing coach who mentors an amateur boxer, played by kick boxer turned actress Ritika Singh. The film was simultaneously shot in Hindi as ''Saala Khadoos''. She also directed the Telugu remake ''

'' (2017), with Singh reprising her role and Venkatesh playing Madhavan's. Her next film was ''

'' (2020), which is based on life of Air Deccan founder Captain GR Gopinath feature and it is produced by Suriya's 2D Entertainment and co-produced by Guneet Monga of Sikhya Entertainment. Due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

, the film released straight to streaming on Prime Video. It received critical acclaim and won 5

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 ...

. She also directed the Hindi remake '' Sarfira'' (2024), starring

Akshay Kumar Akshay Hari Om Bhatia (born Rajiv Hari Om Bhatia; 9 September 1967), known professionally as Akshay Kumar (), is an Indian actor and film producer working in Hindi cinema. Referred to in the media as "Khiladi Kumar", through his career span ...

. Kongara's upcoming film, '' Parasakthi'', is based on the 1965 anti Hindi protests in Tamil Nadu. Suriya was originally set to collaborate with Kongara again, but now the film stars

Sivakarthikeyan Sivakarthikeyan Doss (born 17 February 1985), also known by the initialism SK, is an Indian actor, playback singer, lyricist, film producer and television presenter, who works predominantly in Tamil cinema. In 2021, he won the Kalaimamani Awar ...

, alongside Atharvaa, Sreeleela, and Ravi Mohan.

Filmography

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Prasad, Sudha Kongara Living people Telugu screenwriters Telugu film producers Tamil film directors Telugu film directors Indian women film directors Hindi-language film directors Indian women screenwriters Tamil screenwriters Film directors from Andhra Pradesh 21st-century Indian women artists Filmfare Awards South winners Women writers from Andhra Pradesh 21st-century Indian screenwriters 1971 births Directors who won the Best Feature Film National Film Award 21st-century Indian women writers Screenwriters from Vijayawada Date of birth missing (living people) South Indian International Movie Awards winners Telugu women film directors