Prabhu Deva was inspired by his father, Mugur Sundar, who was a dance master for popular South Indian movies. He took dancing as his career and passion, by learning Indian dances such as Bharatanatyam as well as Western dance styles. His brothers Raju Sundaram and Nagendra Prasadare also established South-Indian choreographers. From choreography hewent on to establish himself as an actor. His dance steps helped him become a star in Kollywood (the Tamil film industry). His first movie as a dance director was Vetri Vizha.He has since choreographed over 100 movies. Before starting as a fulltime actor, he appeared as a background dancer for a song in the Tamil Film Agni Natchathiram. His first movie as a hero was in Indhu (1994) with actress Roja. Deva's success resulted largely from his dancing. In 1999, Deva, Shobhana and A. R. Rahman performed with a Tamil cinema dancing troupe at the "Michael Jackson and Friends" concert in Munich, Germany. He has a significant fan following in the Tamil, Telugu and Kannada film industry. He acted alongside his brothers in the movie 123. Prabhu Deva is married to Latha and they have three sons - VishalDeva (born as Basavaraju), Rishi Raghavendra Deva and Aditya Deva. Deva's 12 year old son Vishal Deva died on December 4, 2008. He was suffering from cancer for a long time. Vishal originally namedas Basavaraju, was the eldest amongst the three siblings. Despite thebest care, Vishal's condition deteriorated and he failed to respond totreatment. There was some rumours that actress Nayanthara and Prabhu Deva have got married. This is said in the Kumutham book.