Soundarya

Sowmya Sathyanarayana (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 Kannada, Tamil, Hindi and Malayalam films. She has received three Nandi Awards, two Karnataka State Film Awards and six Filmfare Awards South. In 2002, she received the National Film Award for Best Feature Film as a producer for the Kannada film Dweepa.

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 Nandi Award for Best Actress Pavitra Bandham & Special Jury Ammoru and Anthahpuram. She won six Filmfare Award for Best Actress – Telugu for Ammoru, Anthahpuram, Raja, & Kannada Dweepa, Apthamita and Best film Dweepa as a Producer.

Personal life
Soundarya was born 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 Intermediate after her first year in Bangalore. Soundarya's birthdate has been reported inconsistently by the media. While some sources indicate the birthdate as 18 July 1976, On 27 April 2003, she married G. S. Raghu, a software engineer by profession.

Early career
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.

Continuous success, critical acclaim and popularity (1995–2002)
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 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, Rajnikanth in 4 movies,  Amitabh Bachchan in 1 movie, 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.

Tamil film career
In Tamil, she was introduced in 1995 by Director R. V. Udayakumar in Ponnumani starring opposite to actor Karthik. She worked with Tamil super-stars in films such as Arunachalam and Padayappa with Rajinikanth and Kaadhala Kaadhala, with Kamal Haasan. she has also collaborated with actor Karthik for Muthu Kaalai, Arjun Sarja for Mannavaru Chinnavaru, Vijaykanth for Thavasi and Chokka Thangam and Parthiban for Ivan. She has acted opposite the actors Vikram for Kanden Seethayai, Anand for Madhumathi, Rahman for Dear Son Maruthu, Sathyaraj for Senathipathi, and shared screen space with legendary actor Shivaji Ganesan in Padayappa.

Kannada film career
In Kannada, 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 with Ambareesh in Sri Manjunatha. Her last film was Apthamitra, a runaway hit starring Vishnuvardhan and Ramesh Arvind. The film won her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress posthumously in 2004.

Other languages
Soundarya acted in the Hindi film Sooryavansham, opposite Amitabh Bachchan. She has acted in the Malayalam film Kilichundan Mampazham, with Mohanlal and Sreenivasan and Yathrakarude Sradhakku with Jayaram.

TV Debut
Soundarya was about to make her TV Debut with the successful Tamil Tv series Kolangal as a female lead. Although she was interested, she was unable to join the crew due to her 2-month contract with the Bharatiya Janata Party to support them during election campaign. So, actress Devyani was chosen instead of her for the role.

Death
On 17 April 2004, Soundarya died in an aircraft crash along with her brother Amarnath while travelling to Karimnagar from Bengaluru during an election campaign to support Bharatiya Janata Party, which she had joined that year.

The aircraft, a Cessna 180, took off at 11:05 a.m. and turned west before crashing on the campus of the Gandhi Krishi Vigyan Kendra of the University of Agricultural Sciences. It had reached a height of 150 ft and, before achieving required rate of climb speed, took a steep left turn leading to a stall. It crashed into the ground nose down 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.

Legacy
Soundarya is regarded as one of the greatest actresses in the history of Telugu cinema and is the most successful actress after Savitri. She was known as a versatile actress, who played distinctive roles. Critics noted that she had a fine sense of characterisation. Due to this ability, Soundarya struck a chord with the Telugu audience despite being Actress from Karnataka. Ammoru, Pavithra Bandham, Doni Saagali, Raja, Sooryavansham, and Dweepa are her best known films that saw her playing strong women characters.