Nassar: A talented actor and director with a nose for quality roles

Muhamed Hanif, better known by his screen name, Nassar, was introduced to the screen by K.Balachander in the 1985 film Kalyana Agathigal. Although the film failed at the box-office, audiences and critics appreciated th performance by Nassar, albeit in a minor role.

After playing negative roles in Rajinikanth’s Velaikaaran and Karthik’s Vanna Kanavugal, he played the lead role in Kavithai Paada Neramillai (1987)which was directed by Yuhi Sethu, but it was his role as Kamalhaasan’s son-in-law in Maniratnam’s Nayakan later that year that brought him fame and recognition, thus beginning a long and successful collaboration with Kamalhaasan and Maniratnam.

He made his directorial debut in the 1995 film Avathaaram where he cast Revathi in the lead role. Although the film received rave reviews, it was a commercial failure. Two years later, an undeterred Nassar, directed the film Devathai. He subsequently directed three other films.

Nassar’s longevity in the film industry can be attributed to his professionalism and dedication that sees him put maximum effort in his roles and appears to be equally comfortable in negative, comedy, dramatic or any other roles.  His Pan-Indian fame grew with his roles in Baahubali 1 & 2 and Ponniyin Selvan 1 & 2

He has thus far acted in Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, English, Hindi, Bengali. He is also an accomplished dubbing artist and, apart from lending his voice to various actors (like Nedumudi Venu in Shankar’s Indian 1 $ 2) has also done numerous dubbed ventures, including Disney’s Mufasa: The Lion King.

Naasar’s second son, Lethfudeen, made his acting debut in AL Vijay’s Saivam and his third son, Abi Hassan played an important role in Nassar’s directorial, Sun Sun Thatha. Their eldest son Abdul Asan Faizal was signed on to play a lead role in a film produced by T.Siva but the project has not yet materialised.