Soundarya

Soundarya Raghu (Kannada: ಸೌಂದರ್ಯ; born Sowmya Satyanarayan) (18 July 1972 – 17 April 2004) was an Indian multilingual Actress and Producer who predominantly worked in Telugu cinema besides Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and Bollywood films in lead roles.

Soundarya's first movie was the Kannada film Gandharva in 1992. Then in the same year, she acted in the Telugu movie Raithu Bharatham, opposite superstar Krishna, directed by Tripuraneni Sriprasad alias Varaprasad. She made 115 movies, predominantly in Telugu, in a span of twelve years. Telugu actor Venkatesh once described her as "a thorough actress" of Indian cinema.

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.

In Kannada movies, she has acted with Vishunuvardhan, Anant Nag, Ravichandran, Shashikumar and Ramesh Arvind. In 1996, she acted in the musical blockbuster Sipayi, along with Ravichandran and Chiranjeevi, dubbed in Telugu as Major. In 2002, she has 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. This is some of the finest acting of Soundarya's cinema career. This film also won her the Filmfare Award for Best Actress posthumously in 2004.

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. Soundarya, apart from good performances and a growing lady fan following, emerged as the golden hand with her continuous successes when her rivals faced constant debacles. 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. Soundarya's intensity in performances, expressions, her beautiful face, her lady fan following and phenomenal success were all in Common with Savitri, and she was able to earn fame as a replacement to Mahanati Savitri.

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 Prabhu Deva 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.

Soundarya acted in the Hindi film Sooryavansham, alongside Amitabh Bachchan. She was also starred in Tamil 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.

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 2003. Soundarya was signed to play Draupadi. The remake was shelved later due to the death of Soundarya in an FLIGHT accident.

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. She was 7 months pregnant when she died. The aircraft 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.