Soundarya was a legendary Indian film actress who appeared in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam,
and Bollywood films in lead roles. In her time, she was the most famous heroine in the
cinema of South India in the 20th century and was considered to be at the same level
as legendary actress Savitri. She was a much sought-after star in the 1990s and acted in
more than 100 films, most of them in Telugu. She produced movies in the later phase of
her career and won the Golden Lotus Award for Best Feature Film Dweepa. She had won
six Filmfare Awards South. Soundarya died in a plane crash while campaigning for a political
party near Bangalore in 2004.
Film career Soundarya, sister of D Ravichandran was the
daughter of Kannada film producer and writer K. S. Satyanarayan. She was born in Mulbagal
and raised in Bangalore. She made her debut while in her first year of MBBS when she was
offered a role by a friend of her father's in the Kannada film Gandharva. Her first Telugu
film was 'Manavarali Pelli' with Harish followed by the movie called Rajendrudu Gajendrududirected
by S.V. Krishna Reddy. She discontinued her studies after the highly successful Telugu
film Ammoru. The movie got dubbed in Tamil as "Amman" and was a huge hit.
She moved on to Telugu films, where she achieved greater popularity and success.
She acted in around 100 Telugu films, such as Pavithrabandham, Pelliichesukundam Ra with
Venkatesh, found to be a popular pair. Annaya, Chudalani undhi with Chiranjeevi and others
like Nagarjuna Akkineni, Balakrishna Nandamuri, Srikanth, Rajendraprasad, Jagapathibabu, Krishna,vineeth,
abbas, prabu deva, vikram, mohan babu, arjun, saikumar, vinod kumar, j d charavarthi,mohan
babu etc. She acted in several female-oriented roles like Thommidi nelalu, Arundhathi, Maa
inti adapaduchu, etc.padha rayudu with mohan babu was great hit Directors like Ragavendra
rao, S.V.Krishna Reddy, Kodi Ramakrishna, Kranthi Kumar gave her lead roles.
Soundarya acted in one Hindi film, Sooryavansham. She was in Tamil films, such as Arunachalam
and Padayappa alongside Rajinikanth, Kaadhala Kaadhala alongside Kamal Haasan and others.
She produced and acted in the Kannada film Dweepa which won her many awards. Unfortunately,
the last film in her career was the Kannada film Apthamitra, a run away hit with Southern
Super Star Dr. Vishnuvardhan. The film was a box-office hit and ran successfully for
one whole year in the theaters. This film also won her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress
posthumously in 2004. She performed in Malayalam movies opposite
Jayaram and Mohanlal too. Her Kannada film Dweepa directed by Girish
Kasaravalli won many awards. Soundarya not only acted in the film, but also produced
the movie. As a producer she won her the 49th Golden Lotus award in 2001, which is given
for best film of the year. She also won the Karnataka state award for Best Actress for
her performance and the best film award as a producer. The film also won the Karnataka
state award for the best Cinematography, and was featured in five international film festivals.
Death Soundarya died on April 17, 2004, in an aircraft
crash near Bangalore, when the plane she was traveling in caught fire immediately after
take-off. The plane, a Cessna 180, chartered by Agni Aviation, left Jakkur Airfield at
11:05 AM. Shortly after take-off the plane turned left, plunged and crashed in an open
field about 500 m from the airport. She was on her way to Andhra Pradesh to campaign for
the Bharatiya Janata Party for the coming elections. Her brother, Amarnath, a producer
of Kannada films, also died in the accident. She was awarded the Karnataka State Award
posthumously for her Kannada super hit film and her last film Apthamithra, which was received
by her mother. Filmography
References
External links Soundarya at the Internet Movie Database