Soundarya (Kannada:ಸೌಂದರ್ಯ)(July 17, 1971 - April 17, 2004) was a film actress in Kannada, Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam films. She had a successful career of 12 years as heroine in films until her death in a plane crash near Bangalore. She acted in more than 100 films.
Soumya acted in her first film while she was at high school. She was offered a role in the film Gandharva (1992) by her father's friend, while she was studying in her first year of MBBS. She discontinued her studies after the film (Ammoru) became successful.
She moved onto Telugu films where she achieved popularity and success. She has also acted in Kannada, Tamil, Malayalam and one Hindi film Sooryavansham opposite Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan.
She also produced and acted in a Kannada film Dweepa, with Girish Kasaravalli as director. The film won host of National awards including Swarna Kamal (Golden Lotus) given for best film of the year and the Best Actress award for Soundarya. It also won Karnataka state awards for Best Actress, Best Film and Best Cinematography and was featured in five international film festivals. Soundarya died on April 17, 2004 when the four-seater plane Cessna 180 caught fire immediately after take off. She was on her way to Andhra Pradesh to campaign for Bharatiya Janata Party for the elections. Her brother, Amarnath, a producer of Kannada films, also died in the accident. Her last film was the immensely successful Kannada film, Aaptamitra. Now 'Soundarya Memorial award' was kept and issuing by karnatandhra lalitkala academy on memory of Soundarya for every ugadi.
At the time of her death she was on her way to an election rally for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) campaign in Karimnagar, Andhra Pradesh. Her brother Amarnath, an employee of the BJP, was also killed in the plane crash.
She discontinued her medical education to enter the film industry in 1992.
She is daughter of noted Kannada producer and director Satyanarayana. She married her distant cousin Raghu Sridhar, a software engineer, in April 2003.
