Indian actor, model, and producer, Sonu Sood, best remembered for his performance in the Salman Khan-starrer Dabangg, is a well-known name in the entertainment industry. He is seen not only in Hindi movies but also in Telugu and Tamil films and has also appeared in a number of Kannada and Punjabi movies. He has received a number of awards, including the Andhra Pradesh State Nandi Award for Best Villain and Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor - Telugu for his work in the 2009 movie Arundhati. He was seen in movies like Jodhaa Akbar, Vishnuvardhana, Julayi, R... Rajkumar, and Happy New Year. In 2016, the actor turned producer and established his own production house by the same Shakti Sagar Productions. His first venture as a producer is the 2016 movie Tutak Tutak Tutiya, starring himself, Tamannaah Bhatia, and Prabhudeva.

Early Life
A certified electronic engineer, Sonu was born to entrepreneur Shakti Sood and school teacher Saroj Sood on the 30th of July, 1970 in Moga, Punjab. He has two sisters, Monika and Malvika Sood. He studied at the Sacred Heart School in Moga, after which he went on to studying engineering at the Yeshwantrao Chavan College of Engineering, Nagpur from where he attained a degree in electronic engineering. Despite studying engineering, Sonu always had a keen interest in acting, hence he started his career in the entertainment industry with modeling and appearing in small commercials.

Personal Life
Sonu Sood is married to Sonali Sood since 1996, and he has two sons with her, Ayaan and Ishant.

Movie Career
After appearing in a number of commercials, Sonu made his movie debut with the 1999 Tamil movie Kallazhagar, where he played a supporting role. He was then seen in yet another Tamil movie the same year titled Nenjinile, co-starring Vijay, and Isha Koppikar. He starred in a couple of south movies such as Hands Up!, Sandhitha Velai, and Majunu, before making his Bollywood debut in 2002 with the movie Shaheed-E-Azam, where he played the role of Bhagat Singh. He then went on to star in the Punjabi film Zindagi Khoobsurat Hai the same year.

It was only after Sonu starred in the 2004 political drama Yuva that he received recognition in Bollywood. He then bagged his first Bollywood movie where he played the lead role with the 2005 psychological thriller Sheesha opposite Neha Dhupia. The same year, he shared screen space with Superstar Rajinikanth in the comedy horror Chandramukhi. He was then seen in the heist-action Super alongside Nagarjuna Akkineni, Anushka Shetty, and Ayesha Takia. After his appearance in the action-drama Athadu, co-starring Mahesh Babu and Trisha Krishnan, Sonu was seen in the Emraan Hashmi and Tanushree Dutta-starrer Aashiq Banaya Aapne, where he is seen playing a negative shade.

In 2008, he played the role of Prince Sujamal in the romantic period drama Jodhaa Akbar. His performance in the movie starring Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai won him a Filmfare nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The same year he was seen cast alongside Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif in the action comedy Singh Is Kinng, where he played the role of an underworld don Lucky. Donning the negative shade yet again, Sonu was seen in the 2009 Telugu movie Arundhati, where he played the role of Pasupathi. His performance won him the Andhra Pradesh State Nandi Award for Best Villain and the Filmfare Award for Best Supporting Actor - Telugu.

The actor was seen in various other movies such as Dhoondte Reh Jaaoge, Bangaru Babu, Ek Niranjan, and City of Life. He was then seen in the Abhinav Kashyap-directed action film Dabangg, where he plays the role of Chhedi Singh. His performance in the movie, starring Salman Khan, Sonakshi Sinha, and Arbaaz Khan, won him the Apsara Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role, and IIFA Award for Best Performance in a Negative Role. Following the success of this movie, he was seen in a series of Telugu movies such as Shakti, Theenmaar, Kandireega, and Dookudu. He won nominations such as SIIMA Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role - Kannada, Sandalwood Star Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role, and Bangalore Times Film Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role Male for his performance in the 2011 comedy-thriller Vishnuvardhana.

The following year, in 2012, Sonu was seen in the Telugu action comedy Julayi, which opened to extremely positive reviews, with Sonu`s performance being well-received. He also went on to win his second nomination for the SIIMA Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role - Telugu. After the success of Julai, Sonu was seen in the 2013 action crime movie Shootout at Wadala where he played the role of Dilawar Imtiaz Haksar, which is loosely inspired by the life of Dawood Ibrahim Kaskar. The same year, he was seen in the Shahid Kapoor and Sonakshi Sinha-starrer R... Rajkumar, which opened to mainly mixed reviews.

In 2014, he was seen in Farah Khan`s heist comedy Happy New Year, playing the role of Jagmohan Prakash, mostly called Jag. The ensemble cast consisted of Shahrukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan, Boman Irani, and Vivaan Shah. In 2016, Sonu was seen in the Mandarin historical adventure film Xuanzang. The same year, the actor turned producer for his Bollywood film Tutak Tutak Tutiya, co-starring Tamannaah Bhatia and Prabhudeva. The trilingual movie was released in two other languages apart from Hindi, Devi in Tamil, and Abhinetri in Telugu. His other projects include Madha Gaja Raja for 2016, and the 2017 action-adventure comedy Kung Fu Yoga, co-starring Jackie Chan and Disha Patani.

The war drama Paltan (2018) and the action comedy Simmba (2018) are among Sonu`s other notable acting credits in recent times. His 2019 releases include Seetha and Kurukshetra. In 2021, he was associated with Santosh Srinivas directorial Alludu Adhurs. The movie stars Bellamkonda Sai Srinivas and Nabha Natesh in prominent roles.