Vijay Career

Early life

Vijay was born to S. A. Chandrasekhar, a film producer and director and Shobha Chandrasekhar, a Carnatic singer. He attended the Balalok Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Virugambakkam, Chennai. He began his post-secondary studies at Loyola College in Chennai and entered in the acting field.

Career

Early Career (1992–2003)

During his childhood, Vijay performed in uncredited roles as a child actor in films produced by his father. At the age of 18, Vijay debuted as a lead actor in the 1992 film Naalaya Theerpu, also produced by his father. In his second film, he co-starred with Vijayakanth in the film Sendhoorapandi. His following films Rasigan and Deva were all low-budget films. In his fifth film Rajavin Parvaiyile in 1993, he co-starred with actor Ajith Kumar, who played supporting role in that film. Also released that year was his romantic comedy Vishnu and romantic tragedy Chandralekha.

The following year, Vijay continued to pursue romantic comedy films like Coimbatore Mappillai. The Vikraman-directed Poove Unakkaga helped Vijay to become a recognisable actor. Vijay's tenth film was Vasantha Vasal which was followed by the action flicks Maanbumigu Maanavan and Selva. After more romance films in 1997, like Kaalamellam Kaathiruppen and Love Today, Vijay took up the romantic comedy film, Once More, in which he co-starred with legendary Tamil film actor Sivaji Ganesan. In his next film, the Mani Ratnam-produced Nerukku Ner, directed by Vasanth, he co-starred with Suriya who happened to make his debut that film. He wrapped up that year with his first commercial success, Kadhalukku Mariyadhai, which was directed by Fazil and earned him a Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor.

In 1998, Vijay worked in Ninaithen Vandhai, Priyamudan, and Nilaave Vaa. This was followed by the films Thulladha Manamum Thullum, Endrendrum Kadhal, Nenjinile and Minsara Kanna.

At the start of the new millennium he did Kannukkul Nilavu with Fazil. He decided not to commit in films that took a year to release, which changed his trend. His next venture Kushi was directed by S. J. Suryah. At the end of the year, he acted in Priyamanavale. His 2001 comedy film Friends was directed by Siddique and featured him in leading role alongside Suriya again. Badri was an action – drama flick which he followed with the romance film, Shahjahan.

In 2002, he starred in Thamizhan alongside Priyanka Chopra who happened to make her film acting debut in that film before acting several Hindi films. Youth and Bagavathi rounded off the year where both films emerged as a commercial success. The following year 2003 began with Vaseegara and Pudhiya Geethai.

Commercial Stardom (2003–2007)

In late 2003, Vijay switched gears from a romantic hero to a mass action hero with the action-romance flick, Thirumalai, which featured him with a new look. Udhaya, a film which began filming in 2002 but became delayed, finally released at the start of 2004.

Ghilli, which was released in 2004, is considered as one of Vijay's biggest commercial successes. Directed by S. Dharani and produced by A. M. Rathnam, it was a remake of the Telugu filmOkkadu, and ran for 200 days in theatres in Tamil Nadu. It was followed by Madhurey. It was in this year which Vijay began to portray his current mass-hero, stereotypical acting style, giving him a major turning point in his career. The following year, 2005, had other major films such as the Perarasu-directed Thirupaachi, the romantic flick Sachien, and another masala film, Sivakasi, again by Perarasu. All these films were blockbusters.

His next film Aadhi, was released in 2006, which was an average success at the box office. He later accepted to work in Pokkiri that year, the remake of the Mahesh Babu starrer of the same name. Directed by Prabhu Deva, it released in 2007 and met almost the same success Ghilli did, in which Vijay played the character of an undercover cop disguised as a local gangster.

Career Slump (2007–2011)

Late 2007, Vijay starred in the extrasensory perception thriller film Azhagiya Thamizh Magan, and for the first time, he appeared in dual roles, as both the antagonist and protagonist. In 2008, he starred in the action film Kuruvi, again under Dharani's direction.

The year 2009 started off with the action masala film Villu, which was directed by Prabhu Deva who was keen on working with him again after Pokkiri. The film featured Vijay in dual roles for the second time in his career. Vijay's next film, Vettaikaaran was directed by Babu Sivan, produced by AVM Productions and distributed by Sun Pictures. In 2010, Vijay's 50th film Sura released, which was also distributed by Sun Pictures.

Most of his films during this period did not do well at the box office, and Vijay's status as a bankable star was questioned. It was also during this period that Vijay fell out with the ruling DMK and the latter, virtually controlling the film industry at the time, tried to even end his career.

Resurgence (2011–present)

He associated with director Siddique again for Kaavalan, the Tamil remake of the Malayalam film Bodyguard. It received a positive response from both viewers and critics and was declared a successful venture at the box office, in spite of the ruling DMK trying to stall its release in many theatres. The victory of the AIADMK in the 2011 assembly elections coincided with Vijay's resurgence. During Diwali 2011, his next film, Velayudham directed by M. Raja and produced by Venu Ravichandran released and declared as a blockbuster.Velayudham became one of the top grossing films of 2011.His latest release Nanban, directed by S. Shankar, became a huge blockbuster and Vijay's performance was well praised.Acclaimed actor Kamal Hassanappreciated Vijay's performance in the movie.

Vijay is currently shooting for the action-adventure film Thuppakki directed by A. R. Murugadoss and after its completion he will begin shooting  for the crime-thriller Yohan: Adhyaayam Ondru directed by Gautham Menon.

He has also signed up a film entitled Thalaivan with director Vijay, which is expected to commence by late-2012. During the shooting of Thuppakki, Vijay and Santhosh Sivan were impressed by each other that Santhosh Sivan has decided to create a script for Vijay which will be an offbeat venture that Vijay has never done before.

Personal life

Family

Vijay married Sangeeta Sornalingam of Sri Lankan Tamil descent on August 25, 1999. They have two children, a son Jason Sanjay born in 2000 in London, and a daughter Divya Saasha born in 2005 in Chennai.

Brand endorsement

In the year 2002, Vijay was chosen as Coca Cola's brand ambassador in Tamil Nadu. He had acted in a variety of South Indian Coca Cola advertisements, along with Katrina Kaif. In 2008, Vijay was signed up as the star ambassador for the Indian Premier League cricket team Chennai Super Kings, along with actress Nayanthara. In January 2009, Vijay was once again chosen as the brand ambassador for Coca Cola products.As of August 2010, Vijay was signed by Jos Alukkas as their brand ambassador for Tamil Nadu and Kerala.Tata Docomo has approached Vijay to feature in an ad shoot. Vijay would be seen for the first time for an Ad with Tata Docomo who are known for their innovative promotions all over. 

Politics

In early 2011, Vijay had expressed his desire to entire politics and his father S.A. Chandrasekhar confirmed it, saying that Vijay will enter politics at the age of 40. Earlier in 2009, he had also shown interest in joining the Congress.

In 2010, he had fallen out with the ruling DMK owing to the delay of the release of his film Kaavalan in order to release the Kamal Hassan starrer Manmadhan Ambu, which was produced by DMK leader M. K. Stalin's son Udhayanidhi Stalin, its subsequent stalling of release in the theatres and various other issues related to the Tamil film industry, particular its monopoly by the ruling party. For the 2011 state assembly election, he declared his support for the AIADMK led alliance and the AIADMK responded positively by providing 3 seats to his fan club, Vijay Makkal Iyakkam. He campaigned extensively for the AIADMK during the election campaign. He even made a speech in Nagapattinam,condemning the attack on the fishermen by the Sri Lankan Government.

Philanthropy

Vijay converted his fan clubs into a people's movement called Vijay Makkal Iyakkam which was officially launched at Pudukottai on 26 July 2009.The administrators of the movement periodically organise charity events for the poor which is headed by Vijay.

Vijay appeared along with Surya, R. Madhavan and Jyothika in a short commercial video outlining child poverty, labour and lack of education, titled Herova? Zerova? produced by Surya in an effort to eliminate children who drop out of school at an early age, made in association with Vishnuvardhan Induri and the Ministry of Education of Tamil Nadu

Awards and honours

Vijay received the Kalaimamani (1998) and the M. G. R. Award (2000) from the Government of Tamil Nadu. Also received an Honorary doctorate from Dr. M.G.R. Educational and Research Institute in 2007.

His first performance award was the Best Actor for Kadhalukku Mariyadhai, given by Tamil Nadu State Film Awards in 1998. He also received the Special Prize for Best Actor for Thirupaachi. Vijay also received the TVS Star City Superstar of Tomorrow (2005), the Entertainer of the Year Award (2008) for Pokkiri and Azhagiya Tamil Magan  and the Favourite Hero Award (2010) forVettaikaaran from Vijay Awards. Vijay also received best actor awards from the Madras Corporate Club Best Actor Award, Dinakaran, Film Today, Amrita Mathrubhumi Awards, and Isaiyaruvi. He received the Best Popular Tamil Actor Award from the 2010 Asianet Film Awards.

He received Edison Award for Best Actor (2012) and Superstar Rajini Award for the film Velayudham.