A polyglot, he played a variety of roles, most notably as the antagonist and, of late, as a character actor. Prakash, as an actor has won a National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor in 1998 for Mani Ratnam's "Iruvar", a National Film Award – Special Mention (feature film) for the Telugu film "Antahpuram", directed by Krishna Vamsi in 1998 and a National Film Award for Best Actor in 2007 for his role in "Kanchivaram", a Tamil film directed by Priyadarshan,