Sampathram Starts Film Acting 1999

A basketball player-turned-actor, Sampath Ram reveals what it takes to play the bad guy in films, and the fear that keeps him on his toes.

When Sampath Ram traded in his credit card collection executive’s job after director S Shankar personally cast him for a role in Mudhalvan (1999), he thought his life’s wildest dream was about to come true.

“I was to play a sub-inspector. I thought that it was going to be my big break,” says the 48-year-old actor, who has made a name playing the bad guy in films. But on the day of shoot, reality hit him hard. “I didn’t know what an atmosphere artiste was until that point,” the actor recalls.