Raghuvaran was a fantastic character actor who sadly became stereotyped as a Villian for most of his career and later as a Supporting Actor
Think of him as a more talented version of Mohnish Behl in Bollywood
Why he was such a good villain was because of his LOW VOICE that was far more menacing than the usual bunch of bad guys who yelled, screamed or gave caricature like expressions like Nambiar or Senthamarai
Once he was typecast, he was rarely given a lead role unless it was a non commercial film
He rarely acted for the paycheck. He had a prosperous textile business in Kovai area or at least his family did.
So we need someone who is
- Good Looking
- Menacing
- Low voiced and not a caricature buffoon comedian like Radharavi or Ponnambalam or Manivannan
- Can actually have the audience impress upon him like Mark Anthony or Neelambari
Fahad Fazil is one name i can think of
Maybe more popular than Raghuvaran
Yet if Raghuvaran wasn't stereotyped and if he had made wiser choices, he would have been where Fahad is today
Irrfan Khan is another
Can blend in as an effortless silent menacing villain
Tabu can be seen as a female version of Raghuvaran
She can be a menacing bad character like in Drishyam (Not Bad but still..) where she acts far more subtly to Asha Sarath with her wide eyes and a bit of over acting (Though very apt for that role)
Prasanna is the GO TO EQUIVALENT of Raghuvaran in today's industry if you need a subtle villain
In all of South India actually
He is in huge demand because unlike Fahad Or VJS who are reluctant to play bad guy, Prasanna is fine with it
Samuthirakani can play a restrained villian but also plays loud mouthed hammy villains from time to time
He too is equivalent to Raghuvaran, a fine character actor who plays villain from time to time
Luckily not stereotyped