Soundarya

While some sources indicate the birthdate as 18 July 1972, the others including The Times of India stated it to be 18 July 1976.

K.S. Sowmya (18 July 1976 – 17 April 2004), better known by her stage name Soundarya, was an Indian actress known for her works primarily in Telugu cinema in addition to Tamil,

Kannada, Hindi and Malayalam films.

She has received three Nandi Awards, two Karnataka State Film Awards and six Filmfare Awards South.

Soundarya established herself as the most popular Telugu actress of the 1990s and is best known for her performances in films such as Ammoru (1995), Pavitra Bandham (1996), Anthahpuram (1998), Raja (1999), Doni Saagali (1998), Dweepa (2002) and Apthamitra (2004).

She won three Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu for Ammoru, Anthahpuram and Raja.

Soundarya was born in a Kannada speaking family and brought up in Bengaluru, Karnataka.

Her parents are K. S. Sathyanarayana Iyer and Manjula.

Her father was a Kannada film writer and producer.

She discontinued her M.B.B.S. after her first year in Bangalore.

Soundarya's birthdate has been reported inconsistently by the media.

Soundarya's first movie was the Kannada film Baa Nanna Preethisu, directed by S. Siddalingaiah, released in April 1992, immediately followed by Gandharva in July 1992.

In the same year, she acted in the Telugu movie Raithu Bharatham, with Krishna, directed by Tripuraneni Sriprasad alias Varaprasad.

She began with lead roles in Kannada, her mother tongue, and went on to become the most popular actress in Telugu films.

Her first film in Telugu was Rajendrudu Gajendrudu, directed by S. V. Krishna Reddy.

Real commercial recognition came to her with Hello Brother (1994), directed by E. V. V. Satyanarayana, in which she starred alongside Nagarjuna and Ramya Krishna.

She played an award-winning role in Ammoru, directed by Kodi Ramakrishna, starring alongside Ramya Krishna and Suresh and played the role of Bhavani, a devotee of Goddess Ammoru.

She had eleven releases in 1995.

In Tamil, she got major acclaim for her debut film Ponnumani, opposite Karthik and Sivakumar for playing the role of a mentally disabled person.

In 1997, she continued her successful run with Pavitra Bandham, Pelli Chesukundam, Amma Donga, Maa Aayana Bangaram, Osi Na Maradala and Aaro Pranam.

She also starred alongside South Indian superstar Rajinikanth in Arunachalam, which became the highest-grossing film of 1997 in Tamil cinema.

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 teamwork across 36 departments.

In 1998 the critical success of Choodalani Vundi, directed by Gunasekhar, opposite Chiranjeevi took her to the pinnacle.

She also starred alongside Kamal Haasan and Prabhudeva in Kaathala Kaathala in Tamil in the same year, dubbed in Telugu as Navvandi Lavvandi, directed by Singeetam Srinivas Rao.

Pelli Peetalu and Sri Ramulayya, Ninne Premistha in Telugu and Doni Saagali in Kannada were commercially successful.

Anthahpuram, directed by Krishna Vamsi, 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.

Her 1999 release Raja, opposite Venkatesh, was another blockbuster and won her a third Filmfare Award.

Her other releases, Padayappa opposite Rajinikanth, Azad opposite Nagarjuna and Premaku Velayera, Premaku Swagatam and Arundhati further solidified her position.

In the same year, she starred opposite Amitabh Bachchan in the Hindi movie Sooryavansham.

In 2000, she starred in Annayya, opposite Chiranjeevi, Jayam Manadera and Devi Putrudu opposite Venkatesh, Ninne Premistha, opposite Nagarjuna and Srikanth and several others that displayed her acting abilities, such as Eduruleni Manishi and Sri Manjunatha opposite Arjun Sarja and Narasimha, opposite Rajinikanth, Pelli Peetalu, Dongata and Nagadevatha.

She also made guest appearances in songs - with Akkineni Nageswara Rao in Mayabazar, directed by Dasari Narayana Rao, in Adhipathi, with Nagarjuna and in Shubhalagnam, with Ali.

Later after the entry of the next generation, her market was slowed down.

In 2002, she received the National Film Award for Best Feature Film as a producer for the Kannada film Dweepa.

On 27 April 2003, she married G. S. Raghu, a software engineer by profession.

In 2004 Balakrishna announced the remake of Nartanasala, and a launch event was held in Hyderabad.

Soundarya was signed to play Draupadi but the film was shelved following her death.

She worked with almost all the top directors, 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.

She starred opposite all major actors: with Super star Krishna in 5 movies, Mega star Chiranjeevi in 4 Telugu and 1 Kannada movie, Mohanlal in 1 movie, Nagarjuna in 5 movies, Venkatesh in 8 movies, Jagapathi Babu in 7 movies, Mohan Babu in 5 movies, Rajashekar in 5 movies, Suman in 3 movies, Harikrishna in 2 movies, Srikanth, Saikumar in 5 movies, Rajendra Prasad in 4 movies and Nandamuri Balakrishna in one movie.

She has also acted with several other heroes such as Vinod Kumar, Naresh, Suresh, Harish, Abbas, Vineeth, Vadde Naveen, Ramesh Babu, Avinash, Bhanu Chander and J. D. Chakravarthy.

In Tamil, she collaborated with superstar Rajinikanth for 2 movies, Kamal Haasan for one movie, Karthik for 2 movies, Arjun Sarja for Tamil 1 and kannada 1 movie, Vijaykanth for 2 movies and Parthiban for 2 movies.