Sathyaraj still shines after 47 years in the Tamil Film Industry.

Sathyaraj is the star of more than 250 films in Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi and Kannada. He is the recipient of three Filmfare Awards and three Tamil Nadu state awards.

Sathyaraj was born as Rangaraj in Coimbatore on 03 October 1954. After completing his BSc, he left Coimbatore to join the film industry as an actor although his mother had strictly forbidden him to do so.

Sathyaraj arrived in Chennai in 1976 and happened to come across the shooting of Annakilli where he met actor Sivakumar and producer Thirupur Manian. Sivakumar advised him to return to Coimbatore, but Sathyaraj persisted and soon found himself in a drama troupe headed by Komal Swaminathan.

After much struggle, he was introduced to Kamalhaasan who then introduced him to director T.N. Balu. This led to his first screen appearance as a villain in the film Sattam en Kaiyil.

Later the same year, he acted in the Sivakumar starrer, Kannan oru Kaikuzhanthai where he was also the production manager. Unfortunately, the film failed at the box-office.

Sathyaraj was determined not to give up and accepted whatever roles came his way and in the years that followed, shared the screen with the likes of Sivaji Ganesan, Kamalhaasan, Rajinikanth, Vijayakanth and Jaishankar.

The turning point in his career came when his college mate, Manivannan, cast him as a villain in the hit thriller, Nooravathu Naal, a role which saw him tonsure his head. This was followed by 24 Mani Neram and January 1, also directed by Manivannan and where he played the main antagonist. These roles brought him lots of recognition from fans and within the film industry. He became the villain that audiences loved to hate.

In 1985, Sathyaraj had another critically acclaimed role as the main antagonist in Kamalhaasan’s Khaki Sattai and later that year, he was cast in the lead role in the suspense thriller, Saavi where he played a villainish hero.

In 1986, he made his debut as a protagonist in Rasigan oru Rasigai and then struck gold when he was cast by Bharathiraja in the lead role of Kadalora Kavithaigal.The film won him critical acclaim. This was quickly followed by another hit – Mr Bharath – where he played the father to someone four years younger than him – Rajinikanth.

Manivannan continued to give Sathyaraj varied roles and these films showed Sathyaraj’s increasing versatility.

In 1994 he played father and son in Manivannan’s Amaithipadai and took him to a new level of respect from within the film community.

In 1995 he produced and directed his 125^th film, Villaadhi Villain which saw him play an impressive triple role that was rewarded with success at the box-office.

In the 2000s, Sathyaraj’s films began to falter at the box-office and the number of exciting scripts offered to him began to wane.

In 2007, he was delighted to play the lead role in the biopic of E.V. Ramasamy Naicker – also known as Periyaar. As a rationalist himself, Sathyaraj described the role as the fulfilling of a dream.

Sathyaraj then began accepting supporting roles, but pinned his hopes of a comeback with his 200^th film – the 50^th and last film directed by Manivannan – titled Nagaraja Cholan MLA, which unexpectedly tanked.

In 2015 his career was given another boost when he was cast by Rajamouli to play Kattappa in Bahubali, enjoying equivalent success with the sequel.

Sathyaraj continues to play varied and interesting characters, providing each role with his signature stamp. His last released film was Rajinikanth’s Coolie and he will next be seen in Nalan Kumarasamy’s Karthi starrer, Vaa Vaathiyaar.