Vijay joins an elite club of hero-turned-villains.
It looks like leading Kollywood stars are fascinated with grey and dark roles. With Tamil superstar Vijay turning a villain in his latest release “G.O.A.T’, he joins the elite club of Rajinikanth, Suriya, and Vikram and goes on a killing spree. “Younger Vijay plays an unapologetic baddy in the movie and he keeps killing members of the anti-terrorist squad and also his lady love and above all, devises evil plans to blast a cricket stadium with bombs and kill thousands of people,” says a director, who adds, ‘It was a challenging role for the actor and he did his best," he adds.
Among his colleagues, superstar Rajnikanth tasted success as a ruthless robot in ‘Robo’ as he goes all out to unite with his lady love (Aishwarya Rai) and inflicts considerable damage to properties and army officials. “Rajinikanth could carry off negative roles with ease since he arrived in Kollywood with villainy roles in films like ‘Mundru Mudichu,’ ’16 Vaidhiniley’ and ‘Aadu Puli Aatam’ in the 1970s and earned a fan following for his unique mannerisms before turning a hero with ‘Bhadrakali’ and became a superstar,” he adds. However, his colleagues like Vikram and Suriya failed to draw crowds for their negative roles in films like ‘Iru Mugan’ and ‘24’ respectively. “They played multiple roles in those movies and showcased varied shades. Vikram played an evil transgender woman and was quite menacing too. Similarly, Suriya is Athreya, a main antagonist in the science-fiction action movie ‘24.’ He is a ruthless power-hungry gangster who plots to steal the time machine built by his brother and goes on a killing spree,” he points out.
Last but not least, is talented actor Vijay Sethupathi who has become a sought-after actor for negative roles and showcased his evil streak in films like ‘Master’ and ‘Vikram’. “He also comes up with hero-centric movies like “Maharaja’ and strikes a balance between good and bad roles,” he concludes.