Prabhudheva's unseen and rare photos

Prabhudheva has extensively worked in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada films and has an enviable legacy to boast of. In a career spanning almost 30 years, he has performed and designed a wide range of dancing styles and has garnered two National Film Awards for Best Choreography. He is usually referred as the Indian Michael Jackson. Here’s looking at a few unseen and rare pictures of the dancing maverick.

Prabhudheva’s forthcoming film ‘Mercury’ has everyone gripped ever since the first poster of the film made its way online. The teaser of the film started with a tombstone that read, "In the memory of 84 people died in this town due to Mercury poisoning 1992." After director Subbaraj's National Award winning-film Tamil gangster flick ‘Jigarthanda’, there are a lot of expectations around this upcoming project.

The film's premise is set around a misty, abandoned place that bears the sad and horrific deaths of 84 people due to mercury poisoning. Prabhudheva's character appears to be one of those dead beings. Now whether he is a ghost, zombie or an entity dangling between the realms of life and death will only be known when the film releases.

Prabhudheva turned director in Bollywood with Salman Khan starrer ‘Wanted’. The film was a remake of his Tamil directorial ‘Pokkiri’. ‘Wanted’ worked wonders for Salman’s career at the moment and set him on a run of successful films since then. If reports are to be believed, Prabhu will be directing Salman’s next ‘Dabangg 3’ as well.

In 2010, his wife Ramalath filed a petition at the family court, seeking directions against him from live-in relationship with actress Nayantara and requesting a reunion with him. Furthermore, Ramalath threatened to go on hunger strike if Prabhu married Nayantara, while several women's organizations conducted protests against Nayantara for bringing disrepute to Tamil culture, burning an effigy of her. In 2012, Nayantara confirmed that she had ended her relationship with Prabhudheva.

Prabhudheva delivered three mega hits with actress Nagma. Their successful run started with the critically acclaimed ‘Kadhalan’ in 1994. The film was highly lauded for its technical prowess and went on to win four National Film Awards, while A. R. Rahman's songs and Prabhu's choreography, especially in the songs ‘Mukkabla’ and ‘Urvasi Urvasi’, became very popular across India. The film also saw success through its dubbed Telugu and Hindi versions, creating a market for him in other Indian regional industries. Prabhu and Nagma acted in two more films ‘Humse Hai Muqabla’ and ‘Love Birds’.

Prabhudheva got immortalized in wax at the Lonavala celebrity wax museum in 2013. He took to Twitter to share his joy at the same. He wrote, "Hi Friends, Today is a very important day for me. Just unveiled my wax statue for the Lonavla wax museum. I'm touched! Sharing a pic with you'll.. Sunil and his team have done a great job with my statue. Friends thanks a lot for all your sweet msges for the statue and all the love. Really touched!!”

The ace choreographer's statue stands in his trademark style with his hands inside the pockets of a grey suit.

Akshay Kumar worked with Prabhudheva on one of his career’s biggest hits ‘Rowdy Rathore’. The two again came together to work on the ‘Singh Is Bliing’. The energetic duo promoted their film on reality shows and they made this particular appearance memorable by breaking into a jig.