He may not be a direct competition to the younger set of heroes today. But Sathyaraj has kept his position intact for more than two decades and he has a box office value even now. His times are getting only better after he started doing intense crucial character roles.

His latest commitment as the love-to-hate professor in Shankar’s ‘Nanban’ will be a kind of role Sathyaraj has never done before. Even he agrees and says “it is going to be new Sathyaraj in ‘Nanban’”.

Apart from playing the evergreen Virus in ‘Nanban’, Sathyaraj will also have a handful of other releases for this year. All of them have author backed roles of him.

In ‘Aayiram Vilakku’, he plays an old man who becomes a Godfather to a young boy who yearns for a father. In ‘Vengaayam’ and ‘Sattapadi Kutram’, the veteran gets a chance to propagate his Periyar ideologies. In ‘Kulasekaranum Koolipadayum’ and ‘Kalavaram’, he plays a plays the central character.

So will he be competing with himself a lot this year? Sathyaraj says “yes for accolades and no for box office”. A pretty honest statement this is.