Vijay is an Indian actor, playback singer and politician who works in Tamil cinema. He made his cinematic debut in 1984 with Vetri , directed by his father, S. A. Chandrasekhar. [1] After appearing in Chandrasekhar's films as a child artist, Vijay made his debut as a lead actor with Naalaiya Theerpu (1992) at the age of 18. [1] He followed it with a role opposite Vijayakanth in Senthoorapandi (1993). [2] Vijay went on to play lead roles in his father's directorial ventures such as Rasigan (1994) and Deva (1995) Vishnu [2] [3] Most of those films were successful commercially. [4] [5]
Vijay's first commercial blockbuster was romcom Coimbatore Mappillai in 1996, [6] followed by his breakthrough blockbuster romance film, Poove Unakkaga . [2] [4] His subsequent films, Love Today (1997) and Kadhalukku Mariyadhai (1997), were critically and commercially successful. [4] [7] His performance in the latter won him the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor. [4] Thulladha Manamum Thullum (1999), where he played a passionate singer gained him the reputation of a romantic hero. [8] [9]
Vijay began the new millennium with critically and commercially successful films such as Kushi and Priyamaanavale . [10] [11] The following year, he appeared in three films: Friends , Badri and Shahjahan . All three were box office successes; [12] [13] barring successful ventures Thamizhan , [13] Youth and Bagavathi (all three released in 2002), [14] [15] his subsequent films Vaseegara and Pudhiya Geethai were released. While Vaseegara was a moderate success and received praise for his comic-timing, [16] Puthiya Geethai received negative reviews and underperformed at the box office. [17] [18] [19] The success of his masala film Thirumalai (2003), [20] changed his on-screen persona to that of an action hero. [21] He appeared next as a kabaddi player in Ghilli (2004), which went on to become the most commercially successful Tamil film of the year. [4] [22] His performance as a sword-smith in the masala film Thirupaachi (2005) earned him a special prize at the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards. [23] [24] He continued to achieve commercial success with Sivakasi (2005) and Pokkiri (2007). [25] [26] Barring Vettaikaaran and Kuruvi 's box office successes, [27] his subsequent releases Azhagiya Tamil Magan (2007), where he played dual roles for the first time in his career, [28] and Villu (2009) were average successes; [29] [30] [31] his 50th film, Sura (2010), managed to recover only its production cost. [32]
In 2011 Vijay's career prospects improved after he was praised for his role as a bodyguard in Kaavalan , which had a 100-day theatrical run and was a box office hit. [33] [34] Velayudham in which, he appeared as a masked superhero was commercially successful worldwide. [35] The following year he appeared in two films: as a college student in Nanban and an army officer in Thuppakki . [36] [37] His performances in both films received positive critical feedback. [38] He followed that with Thalaivaa (2013) and the multi-starrer Jilla (2014) which was commercially successful. [39] [40] He teamed up with Murugadoss again for the action film Kaththi (2014). The film, which had Vijay playing dual roles as a thief and an idealist, became one of the highest-grossing Tamil films of that year; his performances earned him critics praise. [41] [42] In his next film, fantasy Puli (2015), he featured again in dual roles; [43] it was an overseas success. [44] The following year, he played a police officer in Atlee's Theri to mixed reviews. [45] The film had one of the biggest openings in Tamil cinema and was a major commercial success. [46] [47] [48] Vijay's performance won him South Indian International Movie Awards. [49] [50] He played triple roles for the first time in Mersal (2017). [51] In addition to garnering a UK Award for Best Actor, [52] [53] the film became a box office success. [54] Vijay earned critical acclaim for Sarkar (2018). [55] [56] He also starred in films Bigil (2019), Master (2021), Beast (2022), Varisu , Leo (both 2023) and He played a four roles in The Greatest of All Time (2024), all of which garnered mixed reviews but were commercially successful in the box office, with Leo becoming the highest-grossing film of his career. [57] [58]
† | Denotes films that have not yet been released |
Year | Title | Role(s) | Notes | Ref. |
---|---|---|---|---|
1984 | Vetri | Vijay | Child artist | [1] [59] |
Kudumbam | Narada | [1] [59] | ||
1985 | Naan Sigappu Manithan | Vijay | [1] [59] | |
1986 | Vasantha Raagam | Vijay | [1] [59] | |
1988 | Ithu Engal Neethi | Vijay | [60] | |
1992 | Naalaiya Theerpu | Vijay | Debut as a lead | [61] |
1993 | Senthoorapandi | Vijay | [3] [62] | |
1994 | Rasigan | Vijay | [63] | |
1995 | Deva | Deva | [3] [64] | |
Rajavin Parvaiyile | Raja | [1] | ||
Vishnu | Vishnu (Krishna) [a] | [65] | ||
Chandralekha | Rahim Rowther | [66] | ||
1996 | Coimbatore Mappillai | Balu | [67] | |
Poove Unakkaga | Raja | [68] | ||
Vasantha Vaasal | Vijay | [69] | ||
Maanbumigu Maanavan | Sivaraj | [70] | ||
Selva | Selvan | [64] | ||
1997 | Kaalamellam Kaathiruppen | Kannan | [64] | |
Love Today | Ganesh | [71] | ||
Once More | Vijay | [72] | ||
Nerrukku Ner | Vijay | [69] | ||
Kadhalukku Mariyadhai | Jeevanandham (Jeeva) | [73] | ||
1998 | Ninaithen Vandhai | Gokulakrishnan | [74] | |
Priyamudan | Vasanth | [75] | ||
Nilaave Vaa | Siluvai | [76] | ||
1999 | Thulladha Manamum Thullum | Kutty | [77] | |
Endrendrum Kadhal | Vijay | [69] | ||
Nenjinile | Karunakaran (Karna) | [78] | ||
Minsara Kanna | Kannan (Kasi) [a] | [79] [80] | ||
2000 | Kannukkul Nilavu | Gautham Prabhakar | 25th film | [81] |
Kushi | Shiva | [82] | ||
Priyamaanavale | Vijay Vishwanathan | [83] | ||
2001 | Friends | Aravindhan | [84] | |
Badri | Sri Badrinatha Moorthy (Badri) | [85] | ||
Shahjahan | Ashok Ilango | [86] [87] | ||
2002 | Thamizhan | Surya | [88] | |
Youth | Shiva | [89] | ||
Bagavathi | Bhagavathi | [90] | ||
2003 | Vaseegara | Boopathi | [91] | |
Pudhiya Geethai | Sarathy | [92] | ||
Thirumalai | Thirumalai | [93] | ||
2004 | Udhaya | Udhayakumaran (Udhaya) | [94] | |
Ghilli | Saravanavelu (Velu, Ghilli) [a] | [95] | ||
Madhurey | Maduravel (Madhurey) | [96] | ||
2005 | Thirupaachi | Sivagiri (Giri) | [23] | |
Sukran | Sukran | Extended cameo | [97] [98] | |
Sachein | Sachein | [99] | ||
Sivakasi | Muthappa (Sivakasi) [a] | [100] | ||
2006 | Aathi | Aathikesavan | [101] | |
2007 | Pokkiri | Sathyamoorthy (Thamizh) [a] | [102] [103] | |
Azhagiya Tamil Magan | Guru, Prasad [b] | [104] | ||
2008 | Kuruvi | Vetrivel (Velu, Kuruvi) | [105] | |
Pandhayam | Himself | Guest appearance | [106] | |
2009 | Villu | Pugazh, Saravanan [b] | [107] | |
Vettaikaaran | "Police" Ravi | [108] | ||
2010 | Sura | Sura | 50th film | [109] |
2011 | Kaavalan | Bhoominathan (Bhoomi) | [110] | |
Velayudham | Velu (Velayudham) | [111] | ||
2012 | Nanban | Kosaksi Pasapugazh (Panchavan Parivendan) [a] | [112] [113] | |
Rowdy Rathore | Himself | Hindi film; Guest appearance in the song "Chinta Ta" | [114] | |
Thuppakki | Jagadish Dhanapal | [ citation needed ] | ||
2013 | Thalaivaa | Vishwa Ramadorai (Vishwa Bhai) | [115] | |
2014 | Jilla | Shakthi Aarumugam (Jilla) | [116] [117] | |
Kaththi | Kathiresan (Kaththi), Jeevanandham [b] | [41] [ citation needed ] | ||
2015 | Puli | Marudheeran, Pulivendhan [b] | [118] [119] | |
2016 | Theri | Vijay Kumar (Joseph Kuruvilla, Dharmeshwar) [a] | [120] | |
2017 | Bairavaa | Bairavaa | [121] | |
Mersal | Vetri, Maaran, Vetrimaaran [c] | [51] [122] | ||
2018 | Sarkar | Sundar Ramaswamy | [123] | |
2019 | Bigil | Michael Rayappan (Bigil), Rayappan [b] | [124] | |
2021 | Master | JD (John Durairaj) | [125] | |
2022 | Beast | Veera Raghavan | [126] | |
2023 | Varisu | Vijay Rajendran | [127] | |
Leo | Parthiban (Leo Das) [a] | [128] | ||
2024 | The Greatest of All Time | Gandhi, Jeevan (Sanjay), Jeevan's Clone 1 and Jeevan's Clone 2 [d] | [129] | |
2025 | Jana Nayagan † Vijaydata-sort-value="" style="background: #DDF; color:black; vertical-align: middle; text-align: center; " class="skin-invert no table-no2" | TBA | Filming | [130] |
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The film has also done well overseas with $10.75 million (Rs. 88 crores) to date, for a worldwide gross of Rs. 292 crores.