Nassar & Riyaz Khan Movies Together List — 5 Films

The shape of the work

The 1990s belonged to Kallazhagar; the 2010s to Vandae Maatharam. Nassar acted in every film; Riyaz Khan acted in all of them. Strictly Tamil cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Nassar personally recommended Riyaz Khan to director Bharathiraja for 'Kallazhagar' (1999). Riyaz was a newcomer then. Nassar saw his work in a small TV serial and told Bharathiraja: 'This guy has the face of a villain but the eyes of a hero.' That one line got Riyaz his first major Tamil film role.
• In 'Perarasu' (2006), Nassar played the hero's father while Riyaz played the villain. They shot a confrontation scene where Riyaz had to slap Nassar. Riyaz kept pulling his punches. Nassar stopped the shoot and told him: 'If you don't hit me for real, the audience won't believe you hate me. Hit me. I'll signal when it's enough.' Riyaz did. Nassar's cheek swelled. The take made the final cut.
• On the sets of 'Varnajalam' (2004), Nassar noticed Riyaz was struggling with Tamil diction. Every evening after pack-up, Nassar sat with him for 45 minutes, correcting his pronunciation line by line. Riyaz later said those sessions taught him how to 'think in Tamil, not just speak it.'
• Riyaz Khan, in a 2012 interview: 'Nassar sir is the reason I didn't quit Tamil cinema after my first three films. He told me, "You're not a bodybuilder who acts. You're an actor who happens to have a body. Don't forget the difference." I've carried that sentence with me ever since.'
• Their pairing in 'Kutti Pisasu' (2010) was the only time both played comedic roles together. The film's success convinced director R. Sundarrajan to cast them again in a comedy-horror — but the project never materialized. However, that unmade film directly inspired Sundarrajan to write 'Maya' (2014), which became a sleeper hit.