He has performed in a wide range of dancing styles, is a two time National Best Choreographer Award winner. Prabhu Deva is known for his presence in all the major film industries (Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam) in India. He is often described by the media as the India’s Michael Jackson.
Prabhu Deva's first film was Agni Natchathiram (1988), directed by Mani Ratnam, in which he appeared as a background dancer. After a string of successful attempts in acting in the 1990s and early 2000s such as Kadhalan (1994), Raasaiyya (1995), Minsara Kanavu (1997), Naam Iruvar Namakku Iruvar (1998), Kaathala Kaathala (1998) and Vanathai Pola (2000), Prabhu Deva also pursued a career in direction through the 2005 Telugu blockbuster Nuvvostanante Nenoddantana. He then went on to direct successful films in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu languages including Pokkiri (2007), Shankardada Zindabad (2007), Wanted (2009) and Rowdy Rathore (2012).
His real name is Shankupani and he was born in Mysore, Karnataka and grew up in Alwarpet, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.[4] Prabhu Deva was inspired by his father, Mugur Sundar (known as Sundaram Master), who was a choreographer for popular South Indian movies. Prabhu took dancing as his passion, learning Indian classical dance forms such as Bharatanatyam from Dharmaraj and Udipi Lakshminarayanan as well as Western styles. He is widely considered to be one of Indian cinema's greatest dancers. Prabhu Deva has revolutionized some of the aspects of dance and choreography in modern popular Indian cinema, reason why he is named as the "Indian Michael Jackson".
Prabhu Deva's first venture as a choreographer was Vetri Vizha (1989). Before that, he had appeared as a background dancer for a song in the Tamil film Agni Natchathiram. He has since then choreographed in over 100 movies.
Prabhu Deva married Ramlath when she was 15 years old and had three children; their eldest son (Basavaraju/Vishal) died of cancer in 2008.
Last Release of Prabhu Deva was ABCD – Any Body Can Dance. Upcoming films of Prabhu Deva as a director will be Ramaiya Vasta Vaiya (Shruti Hasan), Rambo Rajkumar (Shahid Kapoor, Sonakshi) , 3 Untitled Project with Salman, Ajay Devgan & Arshad Warsi.