He was born in the family of the Georgian artist R. I. Sturua.
From 1956 to 1961 he studied at the directing department of the Tbilisi Theater Institute.
Since 1962 he was in the Tbilisi Theater named after Shota Rustaveli, the student of Mikhail Tumanishvili. The first real success of the young director brought staged play in 1965 named “Salem process” based on the play by A. Miller “The Severe Trial”
Since 1979 he was the main director of the Theater named after S. Rustaveli, since 1980 was its artistic director.
In this theater, Sturua, together with his permanent co-authors – artist Georgy Alexi-Meskhishvili and composer Gia Kancheli, performed a number of outstanding productions that received recognition far beyond the borders of Georgia, including the «Caucasian Chalk Circle» by B. Brecht and «Richard III» by Shakespeare.
He was a member of the editorial board of the journal “Detective and Politics”