Soundarya was a film actress who appeared in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam films. She acted in more than 90 films, most of them in Telugu.

She had a successful career of 12 years as heroine in films until her death in a plane crash near Bangalore.

Soundarya was born on 18th July, 1972 in the village of Ashtagrama. Her real name is Sowmya. She was a Smartha Brahmin.She brought up in Bangalore.

She was the daughter of Kannada film producer and writer K. S. Satyanarayan.

In 1992, she was offered a role in the film "Gandharva" a Kannada movie by her father's friend, while she was studying in her first year of MBBS.

She discontinued her medical education (MBBS) to enter the film industry in 1992.


She moved on to Telugu films, where she achieved greater popularity and success. She reigned over the Telugu silver screen almost until her death. The major chunk of her career was spent in Tollywood and Soundarya became a household name in Andhra Pradesh. She acted with almost all the major stars of Telugu cinema like Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna, Venkatesh and Balakrishna among many others. Soundarya is considered to be one of the all time best actresses of Telugu cinema.


Soundarya also acted in one Hindi film, Sooryavansham opposite Bollywood star actor Amitabh Bachchan.

She produced and acted in the Kannada film Dweepa, with Girish Kasaravalli as director. The film won the Golden Lotus, which is given for best film of the year. It also won the Karnataka state awards for Best Actress, Best Film and Best Cinematography, and was featured in five international film festivals.

Soundarya was offered the role of Draupadi in the remake of Narthanashala. Soundarya along with Balakrishna started shooting for the film, but the film got shelved due to financial reasons and the actress died before the shooting of the film continued.

She got many awards and accolades for her performance.She received 6 filmfare awards in a short span of 12 yrs for the following: Ammoru (1994), Anthapuram (1998), Raja (1999), Dweepa (2002)(2 awards as best actress and best producer), Aaptamitra (2004). Karnataka State Award in 1998-99 (Doni Saagali),dweepa for 2002. Nandi Award given by Andra Pradesh Government (Ammoru,Pavitra Bandhanam and Antahpuram). Not just as an actress but was also a producer for Dweepa directed by Girish Kasaravalli bagged the Swarna Kamal award.


She married her maternal uncle's son and childhood friend, Software Engineer G. S. Raghu, on 27 April 2003.

Soundarya died on April 17, 2004, in a plane crash near Bangalore, when the four-seater Cessna 180 caught fire immediately after take-off. She was on her way to Andhra Pradesh to campaign for the Bharatiya Janata Party for the coming elections. Her brother, Amarnath, a producer of Kannada films, also died in the accident.

She planned on promoting public welfare. Her husband and sister-in-law founded the Amara Soundarya Social and Educational Trust (ASSET). Soundarya maintained an orphanage in Bangalore. She had donated money to numerous educational institutions during her lifetime.

Her last film was the immensely successful Kannada film, Aaptamitra. Now 'Soundarya Memorial award' was kept and issued by Karnatandhra Lalitkala academy on memory of Soundarya for every ugadi.