Which film truly makes you doubt whether the so-called villain was really evil?

 The best example that comes to mind is Imhotep.

The Mummy (1999)

He holds a high position and is highly respected by Pharaoh Seti I. However, he is having an affair with Anck-Su-Namun, Seti's mistress. They are caught in the act by Seti and murder him on the spot. When the guards arrive, Anck-Su-Namun tells Imhotep to flee, and she takes her own life.

Imhotep desecrated her tomb and planned to resurrect her. He and his priests traveled to Hamunaptra for the ritual, but they were discovered by the palace guards. The priests were mummified alive, but an even worse punishment awaited Imhotep.

He was condemned to the Hom Dai curse, which was reserved only for the worst traitors or blasphemers. The Egyptians were clearly afraid of this curse, for if the condemned man were to rise from his grave, the Ten Plagues would follow.

The Hom-Dai was an extremely rare event. If it was ever performed, it was not recorded, as Evelyn discovers after finding the crypt.

We understand that the relationship between Imhotep and Anck-Su-Namun is in itself a betrayal, but then they kill Seti and make it even worse. I can't say if they intended to lure him into a trap for this purpose, but they seem surprised that the guards reacted quickly.

While I can acknowledge their actions as malicious, the condemnation of Imhotep seems excessive to me. Whoever made the decision to carry out Hom-Dai failed to consider the consequences. They are simply passing the buck.

They were completely indifferent to who would be affected in the future. Someone would find the body. Someone would read from the Book of the Dead. Even if it was an accident, the consequences were inevitable. In essence, they created a monster worse than Imhotep himself could ever have been.

What are the top ten iconic villian performances in Telugu cinema?

 List of top 10 iconic villain performance in Telugu cinema especially leading stars

1. Gopichand

Gopichand also acted in villain role, while his iconic villain role is Varsham movie, His commanding body language, intense dialogue delivery, and on-screen rivalry with Prabhas established him as an unstoppable antagonist before he transitioned into a solo action hero

Other noticable villain role:- Jayam, Nijam, Varsham

2. Nani

Nani played a villain role as Vishnu (grey-shaded role) V movie (2020), serial killer.

3. Jr Ntr

Jai (negative character) in Jai Lava Kusa movie

The main conflict in the movie actually revolves around one of the identical triplets, Jai Character played by Jr NTR, who serves as the overacting antagonist/anti hero due to his bitter past and Vengeful nature.

4. Vishwak Sen

He has portrayed characters with grey or negative shade, villain role

Most noticeable film is Das Ka Dhamki,

Where he played at dual role one of which is the main antagonist (Dr. Sanjay Rudra) while also playing the protagonist (Krishna Das). This is his clearrst villain performance

Other prominent villain roles In Falaknuma Das and Gangs of Godavari

5. Rana Daggubati

Bhallaladeva

Baahubali: The Beginning, Baahubali 2: The Conclusion

6. Varun Tej

Gaddalakonda Ganesh (gangster) anti-hero role

Stepping out of his romantic and boy next door roles, he delivered and electrifying rustic performance as the ruthless, charismatic antagonist, proving his remarkable versatility as a mainstream Telugu actor

7. Adivi Sesh

Adivi Sesh is best known for his iconic antagonist role as

the psychopathic and unhinged "Munna" in the 2011 action-thriller film Panjaa, most of us would know him as Hero Protagonist roles, but antagonist role is such rare example how he can shine in villain role, with brilliant twist.

8. Jagapathi Babu

Jagapathi Babu’s transformation from a romantic hero to one of South Indian cinema’s most sought-after villains is a legendary career

His stylish salt and paper look commanding voice and nuanced, unapologetic train presents bring immense death and swagger to antagonist characters across Telugu Tamil Kannada and Hindi films

His villain role especially Sarileru Neekevvaru, Jai Bolo Telangana, Acharya

9. Chiranjeevi

Before rising to mega-stardom, Chiranjeevi built a formidable reputation by playing negative roles and antagonists early in his career. He showcased his versatility as an actor through gripping, nuanced, and ruthless villain performances that set the foundation for his legendary status in Indian cinema.

His Notable film:- 1981 Telugu film Rani Kasula Rangamma,

10. Nassar

Nassar is one of the most respected actors to have played villains and powerful supporting characters in Telugu cinema.

Some of his notable Telugu negative or antagonist roles include

Baahubali: The Beginning & Baahubali 2: The Conclusion; Bijjaladeva, one of his most iconic villain roles, Athadu, Golimaar (Fake Police Officer)

He has also appeared in many Telugu films as a father, mentor, police officer, judge, and politician, showing great versatility.

Although he is from Tamilnadu, he is too most iconic villain actor in Telugu film industry like Prakash Raj.

In which Bollywood movie did the villain have a valid point?

 In almost all the rich guy poor girl or rich girl poor but type of love stories the father has always a valid point.

Case in point, Pyar Jhukta Nahi (1985) one of the biggest hits of Mithun Chakraborty. Rich girl poor boy love story. The problem is not rich and poor falling in love but rather poor man taking a moral high ground and constantly demeaning the rich father with lines like “Seth ji aapki daulat mere pyar ko nahi kharid sakti”!! (Your money cannot buy my love)

I mean in this film the girl's father asked the young man to meet him. He asks him how much he earns? Mithun replies 850 rs. Father gives him a reality check- How will you be able to feed my daughter properly with this meagre income. And what does the man does- he and the girl start singing song embarassing the fatjer in public. Eventually the gir and boy get married.

The father in law tries to upgrade the lifestyle of the boy by getting him a promotion. But when the husband gets to know this his ego is hurt because apparently he has bought his dignity. Father says I am doing this so that my daughter and son in law can live a comfortable life. So what does the son in law did- he resigned from the job because “unhone meri khuddari ko lalkara” (they hurt my dignity and self respect).

He comes home - where his wife is attending relatives from her mother side unwillingly. But he misunderstands it, accuse her of behaving like the daughter of a rich girl, she accused him that he is not ready to upgrade himself. Her father had told him that he would sponsor him. He can get a photo studio of his own. But he rejected. The girl asks why- won't it secure our future? We can take it as a loan and return it to them. But our “khuddar” hero doesn't agree. Eventually conflict escalated and he asks the girl to leave his house.

Long story short it took a long time and emotional route for them to reconcile and the parents apologise for their selfish behaviour. But I also felt that the conflict could have been easily resolved had the hero not been a j*RK throughout and accepted his father in law’s advice and not made it a question of his ego. The father in law was questionable at times but he did had a valid point a lot of times.

Was Amrish Puri the most dangerous villain in Bollywood?

 I believe the biggest injustice done to the Hindi Film industry was to categorise Amrish Puri as Villain. He was as good (or even better) in positive roles and did fair number of parallel cinema films that many people overlook. I would anyday prefer the Amrish Puri of Nishant, Bhumika, Aakrosh, Party, Suraj ka Saatvan Ghoda, Gardish, Virasat etc. where you see Amrish Puri the actor not merely as a stereotypical villain.

There were Bob Christo, Manik Irani, Prem Chopra and Ranjeet type of actors who were limited actors and therefore they can't go much beyond the typical villain roles.

Then there were Pran, Amrish Puri, Danny Dengzongpa level of actors who were terrific actors who could play any role perfectly. So these actors were great villains not because they looked menacing or they could sound ruthless but because they were terrific actors and could play well even the most ridiculous roles. Any other actor would have made a caricature out of Mogambo and Indiana Jones roles but Amrish Puri was able to pull it off.

Amrish Puri had a terrific voice and brilliant screen presence which made him intimidating. Add to that his acting skills he was a lethal actor.

Has Sunny Deol ever done a villain role?

 Yes he has played negative or anti hero role but those films have not fared very well.

Fox (2009)

Fox was a suspense thriller made in 2009 starring Sunny Deol, Vidya Malwade, Arjun Rampal etc. The film was a critical and commercial failure. Sunny Deol played the main culprit in the film who tried to frame Arjun Rampal in a m***er case for revenge. The film was a major critical and commercial disaster.

Right ya Wrong

A delayed film starring Sunny Deol and Irrfan Khan. Sunny Deol plays a police officer who m***ers his wife and his brother for cheating and then passes it off as an accident. Sunny Deol is not the villain but this was a grey role where Irrfan plays the honest inspector and dear friend of Sunny who tries to prove that Sunny Deol is lying. The film is watchable for Irrfan Khan’s brilliant performance. Rest all in the film including Sunny Deol’s performance is passable.

Arjun Pandit

Again not a villain but anti hero. Sunny Deol plays a pandit who is unable to give the correct testimony upon witnessing a crime. Years later, Juhi Chawla frames him as a revenge for his weakness. Sunny Deol ends up in jail where he decides to take his revenge by turning into a Don and torments Juhi Chawla only for both of them to reconcile in the end.

Was Amrish Puri the most dangerous villain in Bollywood?

He looked scary

Very few villains have looked fearsome on their own

Many have had to use exaggerated expressions to appear evil (Nambiar , famous South Indian villain for instance)

Others have needed to use a false gruff voice, costumes and menacing make up (Gulshan Grover for instance )

Even as a young man , there was something SCARY about his appearance that appealed to most directors

His natural voice had the baritone that added to the menace

To the best of my knowledge - only this guy from Thudarum managed to deliver so much menace naturally by just being there

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Lead Actors marked him out

Most Actors WANTED HIM as the bad guy

Many Directors would FIRST TAKE PURI SAHABS DATES and then go for the Actors dates

For Ajooba , Shashi Kapoor and Bachchan personally visited Puris house and offered him ₹20 Lakh for acting as a villain and managed to extract 24 days for his scenes

He was similar to Goundamani & Senthil in Tamil except they were comedians and their dates were always sought after first

He demolished the careers of several villains like Prem Chopra or Ajit who had to move to positive roles to survive

Very rarely has Bollywood had such a man who simply looked menacing and had a menacing voice and was also a brilliant actor

Puri was the entire package

Lee Van Cleef of Hollywood is another who was menacing to look at, whose voice implied Villain and who rarely played good guy

What are some Tamil movies that are worth watching just for the villain?

 I am going to get the obvious one out of the way. Lets face it, we watched Thani Oruvan just for this guy. He is the one who brought people to theaters, he is the one who kept them there.

My all time favorite villain was Kalabhavan Mani in ‘Kuthu’ , the Tamil remake of VV Vinayak’s ‘Dil’. The funny thing about this was, Mani who was the villain turned out to be the the savior of this film while Simbhu who played the yawn-worthy hero actually did more damage to the movie. Sheesh. Mani was taken from us too soon. Watching this now is harder than it used to be earlier.

One of the most iconic Tamil villains of all time should be Vijay Sethupathy’s Vedha in the surprise blockbuster Vikram Vedha. Everything about this role was done to perfection. His younger self, his ruthlessness, dark humor and his swagger - everything was on point.

While his unusual mannerism and voice modulations were nothing new to Telugu audiences, Tamils were in for a pleasant surprise when Kota Srinivasa Rao donned the role of Perumal Pichai in Hari’s ‘Saamy’. The role brought so much character and interest to the film making it the momerable masala movie that we now know it as.

While everyone liked his role in Mahanadi, cementing him as the most cunning of all villains in the 90s, I loved VMC Hanifa’s role in Pattiyal. The very aspect of him being a traitor out-foxing pretty much everyone in the film leading to that climax made me love the depth he could bring to a role even when he underplayed it.

One could argue that he was technically not the villain in this film. But without Yog Japee’s Brahmma - Soodhu Kavvum would have just been another attempt at a dark humour film. Instead his mute portrayal of a psychotic policeman took the offbeat film to top ten lists everywhere.

Bobby Simha has come under a lot of flak for imitating Rajni in recent times. But turning the clock back to 2014, he was the life of Karthik Subburaj’s dream project Jigarthanda. The film was placed squarely on his shoulders with the meaty role of Assault sethu. Simha set the screen on fire with one of the best villain performances of the decade. The fact that this role should have gone to Vijay Sethupathy makes it even more awesome.

Once again, while Kannada audiences know pretty damn well that Kichcha Sudeepa is capable of awesomeness, Tamil audiences were blown away when they walked into a bland-sounding movie about a housefly directed by someone named SS Rajamouli, who was apparently(!) popular in Telugu. What they got was an unforgettable action entertainer with possibly Rajamouli’s most detailed screenplay ever. The entire film was just Sudeep steam-rolling through one of the best performances of his career.

What do you get when you take a role based on Veerapan, lace with ample masala, venomous dialogue and cast Mansura Ali Khan in it? You get a career-defining performance and a Vijayakanth-Selvamani movie for the ages. If you wanted to give nightmares to kids back in the 90s, you didn’t tell them about the boogeyman, you spoke about this dude.

I am taking one more slot for my love of Mani. While ‘Vel’ proved to be nothing more than another Hari-flavoured masala ride. Mani once again took the role of his villainy to next level mixing it with fiery dialogues, comedy and eccentricity. Esp the sequence that I have pasted the below pic from had me rolling on the floor. Man I miss this guy.

One of the most stylish portrayals of villainy came unsurprisingly from Mani Ratnam in this cult classic Thiruda Thiruda. Salim Ghouse’s TT Vikram was a villain on whom many other international Tamil villains were then modeled after. His performance and the importance that was given to the role by Mani made me feel like I was watching some Desi hollywood movie. The film wasn’t received well when it released, but has gone on to become a re-watch worthy entertainer thanks to Rahman and SPB. Yes SPB.

There is no way I am writing an answer without the mention of Raghuvaran’s role in Baasha. In a film that simply refuses to leave our memory and lists, a film that is a peak for Rajni himself - the role of Antony almost over-shadowed everything else. That speaks volumes about how cool this role was. The moment this film hit the screens, the benchmark for villainy in Tamil cinema went many notches higher. Unforgettable role from an unforgettable actor.

And lets end it on that high!

Who will be the competitive actor for Raghuvaran in this generation for a villain role?

 

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.

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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