Happy Birthday Sonu Sood!

Sonu Sood was born on July 30, 1973 and is a famous actor, model, producer, humanitarian, and philanthropist.

He is known for his work in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Punjabi, and Kannada cinema but he became a messiah of people as he helped  thousands during the Covid-19 pandemic.

He debuted from Tamil films in 1999, and appeared in Telugu movies in 2000. His bollywood debut was with the movie 'Shaheed-E-Azam' in 2002. 

This rising superstar acted in over 70 movies including Yuva, Ashiq Banaya Aapne, Jodha Akbar, Dabangg (bollywood), Super, Athadu and Arundhati (tollywood).

Sonu has been at the forefront of war against coronavirus in India. He showed his humanitarian side by helping thousands of stranded migrant workers in reaching their homes during the nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19. 

He also helped people finding oxygen cylinders, concentrators, hospital and ICU beds and much more.

Sonu  married Sonali at a young age of 23 and now has two sons, Ishant and Ayaan. Sonu Sood fell in love with Sonali at a young age way before his acting career and she is the only woman he ever dated. These two met in a college in Nagpur and got married in a court. His wife has actively been a part of Sood’s struggle in Bollywood.

Sood also owns a production house - Shakti Sagar Productions. He also has a family-owned hotel in Juhu, Mumbai named Shakti Sagar. The hotel offered local authorities to use the place for paramedical forces fighting the coronavirus.

Few interesting facts about him:

• Sonu hails from Punjab and comes from a non-filmy background. He participated in the Grasim Mr. India contest and reached the Top 5
• He is an Electronic Engineering graduate, a spiritual being and a fitness freak who idolizes Sylvester Stallone
• He has worked with Jackie Chan in 'Kung Fu Yoga' and they became good friends during the shoot
• The state election commission appointed Sood as the “State Icon of Punjab”
• The Sood Charity Foundation was started to help people from all walks of life
• He started an IAS coaching scholarship ‘Sambhavam’ providing free coaching to talented students from underprivileged financial background
• Sonu helped thousands of stranded migrant workers to reach their homes during the sudden nationwide lockdown due to the Covid-19 pandemic
• He arranged a chartered flight to bring over 1,500 stranded Indian students from Kyrgyzstan in July 2020.
• He arranged another chartered flight to bring back 101 stranded medical students from Moscow in August 2020
• He launched a website and an app called Pravasi Rojgar for the migrant workers to help them find suitable jobs post their return to their hometown due to pandemic
• During the second wave of Covid-19 pandemic, he launched
• Another initiative from Sood called ‘Ilaaj India’ was launched during the second wave of Covid-19 to help provide healthcare services to the needy such as oxygen cylinders, oxygen concentrators, medical equipments, medicines, arranging hospital and ICU beds, and much more
• Sonu received the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor – Telugu for his work in Arundhati in 2009.
• In 2010, he garnered the IIFA Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role for Dabangg (2010)
• Sonu’s father Shakti Sagar Sood had a cloth showroom in Moga by the name 'Bombay Cloth House' and his mother Saroj Sood was a professor. Sonu’s elder sister, Monika is a scientist.
• To pursue a career in modeling post graduation, he faced many struggles in the initial years in Mumbai where he lived in a flat shared with 5-6 people
• As an outsider, bagging projects was really difficult however, he got his Bollywood break in 2001 playing the role of Bhagat Singh in movie 'Shaheed-e-Azam'
• Sonu's Chinese debut movie in 2016 was 'Xuanzang'