Soundarya

Soundarya Sathyanarayana (18 July 1972 – 17 April 2004) was an Indian actress and producer who worked predominantly in Telugu and Kannada films, besides Tamil, Malayalam and Hindi filmsin lead roles.

In 2002, she received the National Film Award for Best Feature Film as producer for the Kannada film Dweepa. She received two Karnataka State Film Awards for Best Actress, several Filmfare Awards South and the Nandi Awards for her performances in films such as Ammoru (1994), Anthapuram (1998), Raja (1999), Dweepa (2002) and Aaptamitra (2004). At the peak of her career, Soundarya died in an aircraft crash near Bangalore on 17 April 2004, when she was on her way to Andhra Pradesh to campaign for the Bharatiya Janata Party. Soundarya's first movie was the Kannada movie Gandharva in 1992, produced and directed by Hamsalekha. In the same year, she entered Telugu movies ("Tollywood") through the movie Raithu Bharatham, opposite Krishna.

Soundarya was born in a Kannada speaking family to an industrialist and Kannada film writer-producer K. S. Satyanarayana. She discontinued her M.B.B.S. first year in Bangalore. She married G. S. Raghu, who is a childhood friend and a Software Engineer. She had wide popularity and tremendous goodwill among Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and is probably the most successful actress after Savitri in the history of Telugu cinema and is often called the "Savitri of modern Telugu cinema". She died in a 2004 aircraft crash along with her brother Amarnath in Bangalore during an election campaign to support BJP Party while travelling to Karimnagar from banglore on 17 april 2004 at 1.30pm.

Soundarya's first movie was the Kannada film Gandharva in 1992. In the same year, she acted in the Telugu movie Raithu Bharatham, with Krishna, directed by Tripuraneni Sriprasad alias Varaprasad. She made more than 100 movies, predominantly in Telugu, in a span of 12 years.Telugu actor Venkatesh once described her as "a thorough actress" of Indian cinema.

She began with lead roles in Kannada, her mother tongue, and went on to become the most popular actress in Telugu films. In her first hit in Telugu, in 1993, she acted in the leading role alongside Rajendra Prasad in Rajendrudu Gajendrudu, directed by S. V. Krishna Reddy. The real commercial recognition came with Hello Brother (1994), directed by commercial director E. V. V. Satyanarayana, in which she starred alongside Nagarjuna and Ramya Krishna.She had an award-winning role in Ammoru, directed by Kodi Ramakrishna. She starred alongside Ramya Krishna and Suresh where she played the role of Bhavani, a devotee of Goddess Ammoru.She had eleven movie releases in 1995. In Tamil, she was introduced by Ammoru dubbing as Amman. She got major acclaim with Ponnumani, starring with Karthik and Sivakumar. She played the role of a mentally disabled person and received good reviews for her acting.

According to D. Ramanaidu, the "Most Beautiful Pairs of Telugu cinema" are NTR and Savitri, ANR and Vanisri and Daggubati Venkatesh and Soundarya.

In 1997, she continued her success with Pelli Chesukundam, Pavitra Bandam, Amma Donga, Maa Aayana Bangaram, Osi Na Maradala and Aaro Pranam, winning acclaim from all over the industry for her performances. She also starred alongside South Indian superstar Rajinikanth in Arunachalam, which became the highest-grossing film of 1997 in Tamil cinema. This stardom made her come out of the shadow of mainstream heroines and she chose scripts which had a wide potential of performance even alongside big stars which was clearly reflected in her movies. Though the industry regarded her to be the golden hand, as a former director's daughter, she always regarded the success not as a one-man show, but the teamwork between 36 departments.

Furthermore, the critical success of Chudalani Vundi, directed by Gunashekar, opposite Chiranjeevi in 1998 made her reach the pinnacle of her cinema career. She also starred along Kamal Haasan and Prabhudeva in Kaathala Kaathala in Tamil in the same year, dubbed in Telugu as Navvandi Lavvandi, directed by Singeetam Srinivas. Pelli Peetalu and Sri Ramulayya, Ninne Premista in Telugu and Doni Saagali in Kannada were commercially highly successful. Anthapuram, directed by Krishnavamshi, stood as one of the finest performances of Soundarya in her career, winning her a State Nandi Award for Best Actress and also her second consecutive Filmfare Award for Best Actress. The producers and directors realized Soundarya's ability to be a crowd puller and the biggest plus for the promotion of the movie. Her 1999 release Raja, opposite Venkatesh, was another blockbuster and won her her third Filmfare Award.Her other releases, Padayappa opposite Rajinikanth, Azad opposite Nagarjuna and Premaku Velayera, Premaku Swagatam and Arundathi further solidified her position. In the same year, she starred opposite Amitabh Bachchan in Sooryavansham, which was one of the few failures of her career, and prevented her from entering into the Bollywood business.

In 2000, she starred in yet another commercial success, Annayya, opposite Chiranjeevi, Jayam Manadera and Deviputrudu, opposite Venkatesh, Ninne premista, opposite Nagarjuna and Srikanth and several others and went on displaying her acting abilities, continuing her successful journey with films such as Eduruleni Manishi and Sri Manjunatha, opposite Chiranjeevi, Arjun Sarja, Ambareesh and Sumalatha and Narasimha, opposite Rajinikanth and Ramyakrishna, Pelli Peetalu, Dongata and Nagadevatha.

She has also given special songs in a few movies. alongside Akkineni Nageswara Rao in Mayabazar, directed by Dasari Narayana Rao, In Adhipathi, alongside Akkineni Nagarjuna and in Shubalagnam, alongside Ali also. She had about 10 film releases each year, most of them in Telugu, from 1993 to 2001, which reflects her path-breaking success. After the entry of the budding next generation, she slowed down, but even later she went on acting in eight films each year till 2004. She has never been proud about stardom, she has been recognized for her super talent, her directors and costars describe her as an honest, grounded and friendly person.

During the period, Balakrishna is announced plans to act and direct in the remake of Nartanasala, and a launch event was held in Hyderabad during March 2004. Soundarya was signed to play Draupadi. The remake was shelved later due to the death of Soundarya in an flight accident.

She worked with almost all the top directors of the film industry, like Dasari Narayana Rao, K. Raghavendra Rao, Singeetam Srinivasa Rao, A. Kodandarami Reddy, Priyadarshan, Girish Kasaravalli, S. V. Krishna Reddy, K. S. Ravikumar, Krishna Vamsi, Kodi Ramakrishna, E. V. V. Satyanarayana, Muthyala Subbaiah, Gunasekhar, P. Vasu, Muppalaneni Shiva, Bharathi Kannan, Sundar C. and many more.

She starred along with many actors such as megastar super-star Krishna for 5 movies, Chiranjeevi for 4 in Telugu and 1 in Kannada movies, Balakrishna in only one movie, Nagarjuna for 5 movies, Venkatesh for 8 movies, Jagapathi Babu for 7 movies, Mohan Babu for 5 movies, Rajashekar for 5 movies, Suman for 3 movies, Harikrishna for 2 movies, Srikanth, Saikumar for 5 movies and Rajendra Prasad for 4 movies and has given films with all heroes such as Vinod Kumar, Naresh, Suresh, Harish, Abbas, Vineeth, Vadde Navven, Ramesh Babu, Avinash, Bhanu Chander and J. D. Chakravarthy.

In Tamil, she also collaborated with superstar Rajinikanth for 3 movies, Kamal Hassan for one movie, Karthik for 3 movies, Arjun Sarja for 4 movies, Vijaykanth for 3 movies, Parthiban for 3 movies, and along with Chiyaan Vikram, Anand, Rehman, etc. and also she shared screen with Shivaji Ganesan in Padayappa.

Kannada Cinema

In Kannada movies, she has acted with Vishunuvardhan, Anant Nag, Ravichandran, Shashikumar, Ramesh Arvind and Avinash. In 1996, she acted in the musical blockbuster Sipayi, along with Ravichandran and Chiranjeevi, dubbed in Telugu as Major. In 2002, she received the National Film Award for Best Feature Film (producer) for Dweepa. She also acted beside Ambareesh in Sri Manjunatha. Her last film was the Kannada film Apthamitra, a runaway hit with Vishnuvardhan. The film won her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress posthumously in 2004.

Soundarya acted in the Hindi film Sooryavansham, alongside Amitabh Bachchan. She also starred in Kollywood super-hits such as Arunachalam and Padayappa, alongside Rajinikanth and Kaadhala Kaadhala, alongside Kamal Haasan. She acted in Mollywood as female lead in Kilichundan Mambhazham, with Mohanlal and Sreenivasan. And also with Jayaram in Yathrakarude Shradaykku in 2002, which was her first movie in Malayalam.

Soundarya joined into Bharatiya Janata Party in the year 2004. Vijayashanti (joined in 1998) and Soundarya are star actresses to host the meetings of Lal Krishna Advani in Nirmal and Adilabad. Soundarya and her brother Amarnath died in an aircraft crash near Bangalore on 17 April 2004, when she was on her way to Karimnagar to campaign for the Bharatiya Janata Party and Telugu Desam Party candidate for the upcoming elections. The aircraft, a Cessna 180 owned by Agni Aerosports, took off at 11:05 a.m. and turned in a westerly direction before crashing on the campus of the Gandhi Krishi Vigyan Kendra of the University of Agricultural Sciences. It had reached only a height of 100 feet before it crashed and burst into flames. B. N. Ganapathi, one of the two persons working on the experimental fields of the university, who rushed to the aircraft to save the occupants, said the plane wobbled before the crash.

Before death, Soundarya started 3 schools for orphaned children in Bangalore, in the name of her father, after Soundarya's death, her mother Manjula started schools, institutions and orphanages in the name Amarsoundarya Vidalaya's in Bangalore, Karnataka, India

National Film Awards

• 2003 – National Film Award for Best Feature Film : Dweepa as (Producer)

Karnataka State Film Awards

• 1998-Best Actress : Doni Saagali
• 2003-Best Actress : Dweepa

Filmfare Awards South

• 1995 -Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu: Ammoru
• 1998 -Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu: Anthapuram
• 1999 -Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu: Raja
• 2003 -Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Kannada: Dweepa
• 2003 -Filmfare Award for Best Film – Kannada: Dweepa (Won as Producer)
• 2004 -Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Kannada: Apthamitra (Posthumously awarded)

Nandi Awards

• 1994 -Best Actress: Ammoru
• 1996 -Best Actress: Pavithra Bandham
• 1998 -Best Actress: Anthapuram