Raju Sundaram


Raju Sundaram is an Indian dance choreographer, film actor and director, who works primarily in Tamil, Kannada and mainly Telugu language films. He appeared as an actor in films such as but not limited to: Jeans, 123, I Love You Da and Quick Gun Murugan ; and directed one film, Aegan. He is the son of dancer Mugur Sundar, and the elder brother of choreographers Prabhu Deva and Nagendra Prasad.
Choreographers and artists L. L. Cool Jayanth, Ashok Raja, Dinesh, Sridhar, Shobi Paulraj, Baba Bhaskar, Johny, Noble Paul, Lalitha Shobi, Sathish Krishnan, Viji Sathish, Poppy, Japan Kumar and Shanthi Arvind has worked as dancers and assistants to him. He won the National Film Award for Best Choreography for his work in the song pranamam pranamam song" from the telugu film Janatha Garage.

Career

Sundaram began his career assisting as a choreographer for his father Mugur Sundar's projects, before going on to lead troupes. He was a dancer in "Rukkumani Rukkumani" from Mani Ratnam's Roja and in Aasai. He also regularly featured in cameo appearances in songs featuring his brother Prabhu Deva, with the pair making appearances in Shankar's early films Gentleman and Kadhalan. After being the lead choreographer for a few Kannada films, his first break came through Mani Ratnam's Thiruda Thiruda, where he was given the chance to design dances for three songs. He then went on to become a choreographer of Tamil directors Mani Ratnam and Shankar, and worked on Amitabh Bachchan's album, Aby Baby.
Shankar then offered Sundaram an acting opportunity in his romantic comedy Jeans, where Sundaram played a full-length role. His played the lead in the sports drama I Love You Da of which The Hindu stated the film proves "serious acting is simply not his cup of tea". He then went on to feature in the trilingual One Two Three alongside his brothers, with scenes shot in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada. The film opened to mixed reviews and did not perform well at the box office. He has since primarily operated as a choreographer, making a few exceptions by starring in comic roles in Jeeva's Unnale Unnale, Prabhu Deva's Engeyum Kadhal and in the Telugu film, Action 3D.

Filmography

Choreographer

Actor

Dancer

Awards

;Won
;Nominated