The bad guys get a makeover

Who are the typical villains of Tamil cinema? A drunkard, a womaniser and a cunning personality with good/ terrorising looks. But, actors in recent times are giving a spin-off to characters with negative shades. In fact, people like Arvind Swamy and Anurag Kashyap, have recently voiced their opinions that a film need not necessarily have the villains indulging in drinking or smoking scenes, to show a person’s negative side. With films being termed as an inspiration for several mishaps in our society, it probably is high time that the directors pay attention to building the character. DC talks to actors who have played iconic villains on screen about this changing trend.

Veteran actor Radha Ravi, who has portrayed several menacing antagonist roles in his career, sees this as a great change in Kollywood. “It is a welcome concept and directors need not resort to smoking/drinking scenes. But, these days even heroes enact such scenes if they face a love failure. Sathyaraj and I have performed in a variety of films and we use satire. I acted as a villain in hundreds of movies and I can say that several characters still stand out, Guru Sishyan, Dharma Pathini and Annanuku Jay, to name a few. I was being stereotyped as an antagonist which made me shift towards choosing soft-natured roles,” he explains.

Echoing similar thoughts, actor Sampath also advocates non-smoking and non-drinking scenes for villains. He adds, “Even if the film is set in a rich and posh background, the final encounter between the hero and the villain is always in an old factory. I don’t understand that concept at all and I strongly believe that directors should change that in a film. We broke the stereotypes attached to villains in Venkat Prabhu’s Saroja, where I played a chilled-out guy,  who is in a serious relationship. In the future, I would like to sit with the director and build my character for the films. I am afraid of being typecast, which is why I choose my characters wisely.”

Meanwhile, Jagapati Babu points out that Tamil films have broken all the rules. “These days, concept is the king. I am ready to do out-of-the box roles and not the similar father and baddie roles. Initially, when I wanted to play an antagonist, people asked me to put on weight and look a little scary. I believe that habits don’t define a person. It is the character’s emotion that will prove whether a person is a good or bad guy. From all the directors I have worked with, only Selvaraghavan had that zeal in him. I was so excited to start working in Kaan, but, unfortunately it didn’t happen.”

There are great artistes across the industries and it now up to the directors to utilise our talents. In my Telugu film, Nannakku Prematho, I was an intellectual villain who was on par with the hero. My character in Legend, which has been running for 350 weeks now, is one of my favourites. But, my role in Bairavaa didn’t give me the much-needed break in Tamil,” Jagapathi asserts.

Actor Ponnambalam, who has acted with Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan, says that the characterisation of villains is evolving. He also points out that villains in the 80s and 90s always had scantily clad women by their side. “I personally loved Daniel Balaji’s character in Vettaiyadu Vilayadu. What is confusing nowadays is the smoking/drinking disclaimer in movies. My son questions me the need for it when the hero himself is happily/ sadly drinking on screen. Also, a heroine gets impressed by a hero who kills eight people. In those days, villains who kill a person would go into hiding. Since great scripts are coming our way, it is high time that directors etch their characters without any contradiction,” he opines.