Famous American writer Paul Gallico had said, “You learn eventually that, while there are no villains, there are no heroes either…” The role of antagonists on the silver screen has always been an ‘evil force’ to reckon with, but eventually they fade away behind the clouds of heroic stardom, quite predictably. Their rugged looks, evil demeanour, terrifying tones and behaviour, most of them see the end of their presence in many a climax. Sandalwood too had its own share of villains from the classic era — KD Nagappa, Ranga, Balakrishna, MP Shankar, Vajramuni, Sudarshan, Shakti Prasad (father of Arjun Sarja) Lokesh, Sundar Krishna Urs, Ambareesh, Tiger Prabhakar, Thoogudeepa Srinivas (father of Challenging Star Darshan), Sudheer, Musuri Krishnamurthy, Dheerendra Gopal, Devaraj, Doddanna, Mukhya Mantri Chandru, Jai Jagadeesh, Avinash, Sobhraj, and many more.
With present day film makers attempting different scripts, the villains too have drastically changed in their look and also those cliched trademark features. Nowadays, they are quite handsome, gentlemanly and suave With a dearth of ‘original’ villains, the Kannada film industry has witnessed a new era being spearheaded by Ravishankar, brother of Dialogue King Sai Prakash. Bengaluru Chronicle reports on the faces of this ‘negative’ trend.
Loki
If Century Star Shivarajkumar is remembered as Bhajarangi in his tremendously physically fit avatar, it was the Raktaksha character that gave birth to another promising villain. Lokesh, popularly known as Loki, rose from theatre to the silver screen. His latest character — playing a transgender in Rathaavara was also appreciated. His height, coupled with an excellent dubbing ability and his versatility with good acting skills has earned him more opportunities.
P Ravishankar
Popular dubbing artiste, who initially was a professional dubber, mainly in Telugu films, is undoubtedly the new face of Kannada villains. In his prime phase, playing negative roles, Ravishankar rose to stardom with Kempegowda in Kannada. It was Kiccha Sudeep who identified the versatile talent of Ravishankar, who is now one of the busiest artistes in the industry, apart from our star struck heroes. The best quality of Ravishankar is his ability to adapt to humour and still retain his negative impact onscreen. His impeccable comic element has endeared him further and makers are queuing up to cast him in multiple roles.
Uday
Jayammana Maga saw another talent emerging as the newage antagonist. He initially worked as a fighter or screen double for star actors such as Sudeep and Darshan. It was Duniya Vijay who being a fighter in his early days, gave Uday the much-needed break. Reckoned as a promising talent to fill in the shoes of villains, the actor is getting good offers.
