Rangaraj Subbaiah, known by his stage name Sathyaraj, is an Indian film actor and media personality who has predominantly appeared in Tamil films. He started his career in villainous roles and later played lead roles. He has acted in over 200 films, which include a few Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi and Kannada films as well. He is known for his performance in Amaidhi Padai, Nadigan, Periyar E. V. Ramas...Rangaraj Subbaiah, known by his stage name Sathyaraj, is an Indian film actor and media personality who has predominantly appeared in Tamil films. He started his career in villainous roles and later played lead roles. He has acted in over 200 films, which include a few Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi and Kannada films as well. He is known for his performance in Amaidhi Padai, Nadigan, Periyar E. V. Ramasamy, the Tamil Nadu government-sponsored film Periyar among others. He was also the director of the film Villadhi Villain (1995), starring himself in three different roles.
Apart from his film career, Sathyaraj is known for being vociferous in the media about various issues, such as water rights in Tamil Nadu and Sri Lankan Tamil nationalism. In 2011, he had a brief career as a television host for the game show Home Sweet Home on STAR Vijay. He has also served as a brand ambassador for Pothys and Kumaran Jewelry Shop.
Sathyaraj was born as Rangaraj on 3 October 1954 to Subbaiyan and Nathambal, with two younger sisters, namely Kalpana Mandradiar and Roopa Senapathy (wife of Dr. Periannan Senapathy). He is an ardent fan of M. G. Ramachandran. Sathyaraj completed his primary school education in St Mary's Convent school, Coimbatore and later studied for tenth standard from Suburban High School, Ramnagar, Coimbatore. He went to Government Arts College, Coimbatore for a Bachelor of Science degree in Botany.
Sathyaraj's dream was to become a film actor, but his mother was against it and forbid him to join cinema. In 1976, in spite of his mother's opposition, he left Coimbatore to enter the Tamil film industry based in Kodambakkam, Chennai.
In his early career between 1978 and 1982 the negative roles he played were often henchman to the main villain M. N. Nambiar and other villains and his role would be minuscule while the main lead was Sivaji Ganesan, Jai shankar, Kamal Hassan or Rajinikanth. His college friend Mannivannan directed Sathyaraj for the first time in the Tamil film January 1 in 1984 where Sathyaraj had a supporting role. Manivannan directed Sathyaraj in around 25 films from 1984 to 2013 and of them 18 had Sathyaraj as the main lead. His screen space as a villain increased after Irupatthi Naalu Mani Neram (1984) directed by Manivannan, in which Sathyaraj's role was on par with that of lead actor Mohan. His acting skills in the film were noticed by many and he became famous among Tamil film audience. Sathyaraj also felt that his villainous roles in Nooravathu Naal and Anbin Mugavari, both again directed by Manivannan, had better footage than that of Vijayakanth's and Mohan's. Sathyaraj started receiving offers to act as the hero in Tamil films from 1985. Directors were reluctant to cast him as the protagoinst as his second film as a lead actor, Iravu Pookkal (1985) was not a success. Most of the films he was part of were of action genre in this period.
athyaraj is married to Maheswari in 1979, niece of producer Madhampatti Sivakumar and the couple have a daughter Divya and son Sibiraj. His son, Sibiraj, is also an actor. He is an atheist.
Sathyaraj and Manivannan shared a close friendship since college and became frequent collaborators in notable films in Tamil cinema. The Hindu wrote "His (Manivannan's) friendship with actor Sathiyaraj translated to several memorable moments on screen. Manivannan...along with Sathyaraj epitomised on screen what is colloquially known in Tamil as nakkal (snideness)". According to Behindwoods.com, Manivannan (as the director) and Sathyaraj had 12 consecutive hit films together beginning from 1987 to 1994: Jallikattu, Chinna Thambi Periya Thambi, Ganam Kortaar Avargale, Manidhan Marivittan, Ullathil Nalla Ullam, Vazhkkaichakkaram, Pudhu Manithan, Therku Theru Machan, Government Mappillai and Amaidhi Padai. About working with Manivannan he has said, that it "is a pleasure. There's no script, no dialogue sheet. It's all in his head. But, he extracts great performances". Sathyaraj and Manivannan also acted together in several films directed by other directors.
