Bangalore: She entered the film world half-heartedly 12 years ago but the versatile actress, who made it big on Telugu and Tamil silver screens, was on top of her movie career when her life was snuffed out in a helicopter crash.

Known for her professionalism and no-nonsense attitude, Soundarya steadily climbed the commercial success ladder after her debut in a Kannada film in 1992 and was a hit in Telugu and Tamil movies in which she acted opposite stars such as Rajnikant, Chiranjeevi, Nagarjuna and Kamal Haasan.

Tamil films 'Padayappa' and 'Arunachalam' in which she paired with Rajnikant were super hits.

But she was more popular in Telugu filmdom where some of her films are 'Devi Puthrudu', 'Sri Manjunatha', 'Pavithra Bandham', 'Anthahpuram', 'Ammoru', 'Arundhati', 'Kondaveeti Simhaasanam', 'Ninne Premistha', 'Naaga Devatha' and 'Raaja'.

A Kannadiga, she did not initially taste much success in Kannada except for 'Sipayi' in which Ravichandran and Chiranjeevi acted. She acted in more than 90 films.

Soundarya is known for her 'graceful' and dignified roles, and was a busy star with even top heroes having had to wait for her dates. She co-starred with Amitabh Bachchan in 'Sooryavansha' and also acted in Malayalam films 'Kochu Kilichundan Maambazham' and 'Yathrakkarude Shradhaikku'.

After a decade-long successful innings in commercial cinema, Soundarya, whose original name was Soumya, forayed into art movies and her maiden venture 'Dweepa' in Kannada won her national award for best producer last year.

Soundarya had plans to remake 'Dweepa', which was directed by Girish Kasaravalli, into English to take it to larger audiences. In fact, the offbeat film had bagged three State awards - best actress, film and cinematography. It also made its entry into international film festivals.

Soundarya received film offers when she was doing first year in MBBS. She actually wanted to become a doctor or architect and made her debut with 'Gandharva' in Kannada and later moved to Tamil with 'Ponnumani' and Telugu with 'Raithu Bharatham'.

But vast majority of her films were Telugu and she is a household name in Andhra Pradesh. She had bagged three State awards in Andhra Pradesh and won best film actress award in Kannada for 'Doni Saagali'. She also received the prestigious Filmfare award in 1999.

Soundarya had married a distant relative and software engineer Sridhar in April last year, and continued her film career.