Tamil cinema has always glorified its heroes as larger than life icons and fans have worshipped them placing on a pedestal all through the history of the medium. As the saying goes the stronger the villain the more applause goes to the hero.

During the MGR-Sivaji era there was M.N.Nambiar who with played the terror villain, the scheming villain, the macho villain, the aging villain and everything in between. His sword wielding skills aided in his reign as the only villain who surpassed generations to act even in the Vijay-Ajith era. P.S. Veerappa was another legend who with his baritone dialogue delivery and laugh earned the wrath of the people. T.S. Balaiah known more for his comedic roles was evil incarnate when doing the villain and his very look spit venom. Similarly the very talented V.K.Ramaswamy was as comfortable as a villain as he was as a loving father or a funny man.

The Jaishankar-Ravichandran era saw heroes Ashokan and R.S. Manohar doing duties as the villain with the former inventing an inimitable style of his own to add a comical edge and the latter leaning more on the serious path. At just about that time Rajinikant and Kamal Haasan alongwith Srikanth shined as villains for a brief period and graduated to anti hero roles and the Superstar and Ulaganayagan are the unshakeable Emperors of Tamil cinema to this day. The period saw more social dramas and thus these villains were more close to life like a womanizer, a friend who turns traitor or a man who wrecks a family with his scheming ways.

The Rajini- Kamal period also saw other actors like Vijayakanth, Prabhu, Mohan and Karthick sharing the top space and one villain who garnered as much claps as them was Sathyaraj who with his dialogue delivery and towering looks became an all time favorite with the crowds. Just at the time when Sathyaraj inevitably turned hero it ushered in a stylish modern day villain in the form of Raghuvaran who ruled the roost till the Ajith-Vijay era.

If you notice all the names mentioned above the common factor that will hit you is that almost everyone of them spoke Tamil in their own unique styles making it one of the most important aspect for endearing themselves to the audiences. In this modern era almost all the films have Bollywood and other language villains. The obvious reason is that for commercial purposes a Hindi villain and a Telugu heroine are mandatory to bring in the moolah. Though no one complains unless the character is part of the storyline these villains do not stay in the minds of the audiences and thus we have not encountered a villain who the people love as much as hero unless he is an Arvind Swamy.