Career Sonu Sood

South Indian debut (1999–2003)

Sonu Sood began his film career in Tamil cinema with Kallazhagar and Nenjinile (1999), and soon worked in Telugu films too. His first Hindi film was Shaheed-E-Azam (2002), in which he played the freedom fighter Bhagat Singh.

Bollywood and Telugu success (2004–2009)

He gained recognition with the following films:

• Mani Ratnam's Yuva (2004)
• Aashiq Banaya Aapne (2005)
• The Telugu hit Athadu (2005)
• Ashutosh Gowariker's Jodhaa Akbar (2008), as Sujamal

His role as the villain Pasupathi in the Telugu blockbuster Arundhati (2009) won him the Nandi Award for Best Villain and the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor – Telugu.

Mainstream stardom (2010–2019)

As the villain Chhedi Singh in Salman Khan's Dabangg (2010), he won the IIFA Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role. Other notable films:

• Dookudu (2011)
• Julayi (2012)
• Shootout at Wadala (2013)
• R... Rajkumar (2013)
• Happy New Year (2014)
• Kung Fu Yoga (2017, with Jackie Chan)
• Paltan (2018)
• Simmba (2018)
• The Kannada epic Kurukshetra (2019)

In 2016 he set up his production company, Shakti Sagar Productions.

Director and host (2020s)

Sonu hosted the youth reality show MTV Roadies from 2022. He wrote, produced and directed Fateh, an action thriller about cyber fraud starring himself and Jacqueline Fernandez, which was released in theatres on 10 January 2025.

Humanitarian work

When India's COVID-19 lockdown left millions of migrant workers stranded in 2020, Sonu Sood:

• Organised buses, trains and chartered flights to send thousands of them home
• Flew over 1,500 Indian students back from Kyrgyzstan
• Launched the Pravasi Rojgar job platform for workers who had lost their jobs
• Supplied oxygen cylinders and set up oxygen plants during the second wave in 2021

He wrote about this experience in the book I Am No Messiah (2020, with Meena Iyer). Through the Sood Charity Foundation he supports education, healthcare and disaster relief.

In February 2026 he received the People's Pride of the Year award at the Zee Samvaad Real Heroes Awards. In August 2026 he pledged food and shelter for victims of the Nepal floods.