Natty became acquainted with director
Ram Gopal Varma and the pair discussed a film project which did not materialise, before he was recommended by Varma to
Anurag Kashyap, whom he worked with for three Hindi projects -
Last Train to Mahakali (1999),
Paanch (2003), and
Black Friday (2004). In between he had also worked for Tamil romantic-comedy
Youth (2002) starring
Vijay, and had briefly agreed to be a part of
AR Murugadoss's
Ramanaa (2001), which he later opted out from. Away from cinematography in big-budget Hindi films, Natarajan has embarked on an alternate career as an actor in small-budget Tamil films. He initially appeared in two films by his friend
Uday Mahesh,
Naalai (2006) and
Chakkara Viyugam (2008), both of which went unnoticed at the box office but he won positive acclaim for his performance in
Naalai. He starred in two further
action-masala films aimed at the village and town audiences,
Milaga (2010) and
Muthukku Muthaaga (2011), which received similar lukewarm responses. In 2014, Natarajan featured in the Tamil caper film,
Sathuranga Vettai directed by newcomer
Vinoth and produced by
Manobala. The film opened to positive reviews and became a surprise success at the box office, with a critic noting Natarajan "is brilliant as Gandhi Babu. He does his part with relish using his brains more than brawn with expressive body and eye language". However, his 2015 action film
Katham Katham is not very impressive. Once again, Natty plays the good-man-turned-evil-mind, whose biggest weakness is spondulicks. His dialogue delivery is titch and screen presence, casual, on a believable act of bad cop. In 2017, he had three film releases including
Enkitta Mothathe,
Bongu and
Richie. In 2018, Natty was approached by the duo directors
Hari and Harish for a thriller titled "Silk" which is supposed to be a Kanchipuram-based storyline, but the shooting has not yet been started. In
Pandiraj's
Namma Veettu Pillai (2019), he has a muscular presence, perfect for a character actor. He acted in the lead role in
Sandimuni (2020) and
Godfather (2020). He has played an important role in
Sibi's cop drama
Walter (2020), which was directed by U. Anbarasan. Natty experienced playing the ruthless cop Kannabiran in
Mari Selvaraj in
Karnan (2021). The film was Natty's second collaboration with
Dhanush, the first being as the cinematographer of the latter's Hindi debut,
Raanjhanaa. In 2022, he was cast in the Tamil-Malayalam bilingual
Yugi and play in the drama film
Gurumoorthi. Then, he has starred in thriller films such as
Infinity (2023),
Web (2023) in lead roles, who have suffered failures. Natty has grabbed the attention of the audience through his role as a cop in
Maharaja (2024) featuring
Vijay Sethupathi in the lead role.
Maharaja garnered widespread critical and commercial acclaim. In 2025, he appeared as a police inspector in the thriller films
Seesaw and
Right. ==Filmography==