Sathyaraja: The Actor Who Can Blend Into Different Shades Like A Chameleon

Sathyaraj's desire to become an actor started during his college days and that earned the wrath of his family who were against his decision of following a career in films. Despite the hostility, he left from his hometown and decided to join the film industry. The actor's journey to stardom was not like a cakewalk as he was mainly playing sidekicks to antagonists in the early beginnings of his career.

1. The Anti-Hero Phase: He then got his first lead role with the film Saavi where he played an anti-hero in the film and it was box-office success at the time of its release. During the time from 1978 to 1985, he was mainly featured in antagonist roles which made him quite successful in the industry.

2. The Romantic Hero Phase: The action era slowly died its own death when he played a lead role in the 1986 film Kadalora Kavithaigal which was of a romantic genre and there were times when he played a father role to Rajinikanth despite Thalaivaa being four years younger to him. 

3. Experimental Roles: This phase of his career saw him taking huge risks by taking multiple responsibilities like taking the job of a director and actor in most of the films. In this phase, he was heavily involved in playing multiple roles ranging from father and son in Amaidhi Padai and in Villadhi Villain he played three roles which were well appreciated by the critics and the audience.

4. Comedy And Drama Films: During this phase, he was heavily involved in giving performance oriented roles which were quite popular among the fans especially Lee, comedy film Kovai Brothers and Vetrivel Sakthivel where he was featured with his son in all three films. The most acclaimed role of his was in Periyar which was based on the life of a famous social activist of the same name, for which he had got praise from the critics.

5. Playing only character roles: This millennial era involved the actor playing mostly fatherly roles in films like Nanban, Mirchi and Thalaivaa. Nanban happened to be the remake of 2009 blockbuster film 3 Idiots and Sathyaraj stepped into the shoes of Boman Irani in this. After a long time, he featured in Tollywood with films like Sankham and Mirchi which were both box office success. He then expanded his base in Bollywood by playing an important role in SRK's blockbuster Chennai Express, despite being in a Bollywood film, the actor was sticking to his roots in terms of his character.

6. International Recognition because of Baahubali: Yes, that's true because Sathyaraj had a dream of being part of a film which heavily relied on folklore and period-like themes which became true when he was offered the role of Kattappa in the magnum opus Baahubali 1 & 2. The character became a pop culture ranging from jokes to official merchandise. Owing to the success, the question of "Why did Kattappa killed Baahubali?" became a rage among the movie buffs.

We need to see more from the actor in the near future.