Prabhudheva: The many facets of India’s Michael Jackson

Starting off as a dance assistant to becoming one of the big directors in Bollywood, Prabhudheva has come a long way in films. The multi-faceted artist has been successful as an artist, technician and producer as well. Basking in the success of the latest dance drama 'Lakshmi', Pravhudheva currently awaits several releases this year.

We now take a trip down memory lane to look at his cinematic journey so far.

Often regarded as India’s Michael Jackson, Prabhudheva is one of the finest dancers we have today. His expertise in choreography has often taken audience by surprise. It’s also safe to say that Prabhudheva has inspired a whole new generation when it comes to dance. After appearing as a group dancer in ‘Agni Natchathiram’, Prabhudheva got his first breakthrough with Kamal Haasan-starrer ‘Vetri Vizha’. He’s famously known for choreographing Hrithik Roshan for the song ‘Main Aisa Kyun Hoon’ in the film ‘Lakshya’. A trained Bharatanatyam artist, Prabhudheva is popular for his western dance moves. So far, Prabhudheva has choreographed in over 100 films in across the languages. Apart from choreography, Prabhudheva has made cameo appearances in films like ‘Rowdy Rathore’, ‘Happy New Year’, ‘Pokkiri’, ‘Wanted’ and ‘Baba’ to name a few.

Prabhudheva made his acting debut in the Tamil film ‘Indhu’, in which he played an important role. However, it was Shankar’s ‘Kaadhalan’ in 1994 that shot Prabhudheva to fame. The film was a terrific hit at the box office and went on to win four National Awards. ‘Kaadhalan’ became a pop-culture phenomenon especially for its songs by AR Rahman. After acting in a series of films, Prabhudheva collaborated with director Rajiv Menon for ‘Minsara Kanavu’, which also starred Arvind Swami and Kajol in lead roles. The film was a true-blue hit and Prabhudheva won the National Award for Best Choreography for the song ‘Vennilave Vennilave’. In the late ‘90s, Prabhudheva acted in comedy films and also worked with Kamal Haasan in ‘Kaadhala Kaadhala’, which won critical acclaim. The early 2000s saw Prabhudheva having his own market in Tamil with films like ‘Ullam Kollai Poguthu’, ‘Manathai Thirudivittai’ and ‘Engal Annan’, which were commercially successful.

Prabhudheva made his directorial debut with ‘Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana’ in 2005 starring Siddharth and Trisha Krishnan in lead roles. The film opened to rave reviews and was extremely successful at the box office. ‘Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana’ was remade in several languages including Hindi and Tamil. Prabhudheva became a household name after directing Vijay in the cop thriller ‘Pokkiri’, a remake of the Telugu film of the same name. ‘Pokkiri’ was released on Pongal and shot Vijay to superstardom. The film was an out-and-out money spinner at the box office, thereby establishing a good market for Prabhudheva. Since then, Prabhu has directed several blockbuster films in across the industries.

Prabhudheva is one of the few directors who has made a successful career in Bollywood. The stupendous success of ‘Pokkiri’ crossed borders and was remade in Hindi as ‘Wanted’. Despite mixed reviews, the Salman Khan-starrer shattered box office records and became the highest grossing film that year. Reportedly, the film became a breakthrough in Salman Khan’s career and soon, he became the ‘Bhai’ of Bollywood. Prabhudheva also collaborated with Akshay Kumar for ‘Rowdy Rathore’, which is again a remake of Telugu film ‘Vikramarkudu’. The film was a huge hit at the box office grossing more than Rs 200 crore. With back-to-back blockbusters, Prabhudheva became one of the leading directors in Bollywood. However, Prabhu’s subsequent release like ‘R...Rajkumar’, ‘Ramayya Vasthavayya’ and ‘Action Jackson’ were panned by critics.

After taking a break from acting, Prabhudheva returned to silver screen with the Malayalam film ‘Urumi’, directed by Santosh Sivan. While Prabhudheva was lauded for his performance, the film failed to mint money. However, in 2013, Prabhudheva returned with a bang with the Bollywood musical ‘ABCD’, which made terrific numbers at the box office. A sequel to ‘ABCD’ was made with Varun Dhawan and Shraddha Kapoor in the lead, which became a box office hit. After many year, Prabhudheva returned to Tamil with ‘Devi’, a horror comedy, that was a profitable venture at the box office. Since then, Prabhudheva’s second innings in Tamil has been quite interesting. The ‘Kadhalan’ actor was highly appreciated for his performance in the silent thriller 'Mercury', in which he played a zombie-like character. Later this year, Prabhudheva will be shooting for the cop thriller 'Pon Manickavel', which will be directed by AC Mugil.