Referred to by fans and media as “Makkal Selvan“, meaning ‘people’s treasure,’ Sethupathi has starred in more than 50 films till date. Having joined Chennai-based theatre group Koothu-P-Pattarai as an accountant where he observed actors from close quarters, Sethupathi started his journey as a background actor, mostly playing the role of a friend of lead characters in a few films, and appearing in television series, such as ‘Naalaya Iyakkunar’ for Kalaignar TV. He got his first lead role in Seenu Ramasamy’s ‘Thenmerku Paruvakaatru’ (2010), later finding popularity with the thriller ‘Pizza’ (2012), and comedy entertainer ‘Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom’ (2012).
Along with Mani Ratnam’s multi-starrer ‘Chekka Chivantha Vaanam’ and romantic drama ‘96’, directed by C. Prem Kumar, Sethupathi is best remembered for Balaji Tharaneetharan directorial ‘Seethakaathi’, Thiagarajan Kumararaja’s Super ‘Deluxe’, and for his negative roles such as in Karthik Subbaraj’s ‘Petta’ alongside Rajinikanth.
In the last few months, Sethupathi has appeared in Telugu film ‘Uppena’ and Tamil romantic action anthology ‘Kutty Story’, both released in February 2021. He also played the antagonist in Tamil action-drama ‘Master’, starring Vijay in the lead role, that released in January 2021 and Kamal Haasan-starrer ‘Vikram’ that released last June.
Over the years, Sethupathi is remembered for films such as ‘Idharkuthane Aasaipattai Balakumara’ (2013), ‘Pannaiyarum Padminiyum’ (2014), ‘Kadhalum Kadandhu Pogum’ (2016), ‘Iraivi’ (2016), ‘Vikram Vedha’ (2017), 96 (2018), ‘Chekka Chivantha Vaanam’ (2018), ‘Petta’ (2019), ‘Super Deluxe’ (2019), ‘Master’ (2021), ‘Kaathuvaakula Rendu Kaadhal’ (2022) and ‘Vikram’ (2022) and Telugu films like ‘Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy’ (2019) and ‘Uppena’ (2021).
