Actor Nasser has been working across various film industries long before the term pan-India actor became popular. In his earlier days, he worked in films such as Kalyana Agathigal, Velaikaran and Vanna Kanavugal, but his breakthrough came with Mani Ratnam's film Nayakan. Nasser has mainly worked in Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam films and is known for Hindi films such as Ramaiya Vastavaiya, Rowdy Rathore and Hulchul, among others. The actor was also offered Lagaan at one point but had to give that up due to a conflict in schedule.