Vijay History

Early life

Vijay was born on June 22, 1974, to film producer and director S. A. Chandrasekhar and Shoba Chandrasekhar, a classical and a playback singer. He had a sister named Vidhya Chandrasekhar who died at the age of two.[3][unreliable source?] Vijay went on to do his schooling in Balalok in Virugambakkam and discontinued in Visual Communications at Loyola College, Chennai.[4][dead link]
Acting career

Vijay debuted as a role actor in the 1992 film Naalaya Theerpu, produced by his father. After a few other films, he co-stared with Vijayakanth in the film Sendhoorapandi. This film helped Vijay to become popular in the interior areas of Tamil Nadu. Films like Rasigan, Vishnu, and Deva were low-budget movies established him to audiences. Vijay is also one of the few lead actors of his generation to co-star with veteran actor Sivaji Ganesan. This opportunity came in the film Once More, directed by his father S. A. Chandrasekhar in 1996.

The year 1996 he found his first success in the Vikraman-directed film Poove Unakkaga which helped Vijay to establish as a emerging star in Tamil films. In 1997 he acted in the Vasanth film Nerrukku Ner along with Surya Sivakumar. This film was produced by Mani Ratnam. Then he acted in Kadhalukku Mariyadhai directed by Fazil. Kadhalukku Mariyadhai was a blockbuster and made Vijay receive that year's Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor.

In 1998, Vijay worked in Priyamudan and Thulladha Manamum Thullum which were huge hits at box office. Then the following films Endrendrum Kadhal, Nenjinile, Minsara Kanna failed miscerably at box-office. Then he did Kannukkul Nilavu with Fazil but the movie failed at boxoffice even his acting was praised. He decided not to commit in films that took a year to release, which changed his trend. His next venture Kushi was a blockbuster. The following film Friends was also a blockbuster.

Later on, he starred in Shahjahan, Thamizhan which were average grossers at box office. However, the films that followed Bagavathi ,Vaseegara, Pudhiya Geethai, and his delayed film Udhaya became low grossers and flopped. This highly affected Vijay's success rate and he was looked down upon by film critics and producers.

His string of failure films was broken by Thirumalai in 2003 which had Vijay in a new facial appearance. Ghilli, which was released in 2004, is considered to be one of Vijay's biggest hits today. Directed by Dharani and produced by A. M. Rathnam, it was a remake of the Telugu film Okkadu, and ran for 200 days in theatres in Tamil Nadu. Then came Madhurey which was a average grosser at box office . 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 had Thirupaachi, Sachien and Sivakasi which were huge hits.

Vijay's unsuccessful film since the release of Thirumalai was Aathi , which released in 2006. This film failed miserably at box-office. Later that year he announced Pokkiri, directed by Prabhu Deva, which released in 2007. Pokkiri had met almost the same success as Ghilli did, in which Vijay was given a different style to act as. This made Vijay receive an honorary doctorate title from the M. G. R. University. Later that year, Vijay appeared in Azhagiya Thamizh Magan, and for the first time, he appeared in dual roles, as the antagonist and protagonist. In 2008, he starred in Kuruvi, again under Dharani's direction.

The year 2009 started off with the action mass film Villu, which was directed by Prabhu Deva who was keen on working with him again after Pokkiri. The film had Vijay in dual roles for the second time in his career. Vijay's next film Vettaikkaaran, directed by Babu Sivan, produced by AVM Productions and distributed by Sun Pictures, which began filming in February 2009 and was released on December 18, 2009 was a commercial hit. Vijay is currently acting in Sura, in which he will co-star Tamanna Bhatia, directed by SP Rajkumar and produced by Sangili Murugan. This will be Vijay's first maiden venture as a director in Tamil Cinema. Directors M. Raja and N. Lingusamy have also confirmed that they will be casting Vijay in their next respective films.
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 Shriya Saran in 2001 before shriya become leading lady in tamil and acted along with Vijay in the film Azhagiya Tamil Magan which was released in 2007. Besides that Vijay also acted with famous bollywood actress Katrina Kaif. In January 2009, Vijay was once again chosen as the brand ambassador for Coca Cola products.[5]

In 2008, Vijay was signed up as the star ambassador for the Indian Premier League cricket team Chennai Super Kings, along with actress Nayantara.


Awards and honours

Vijay won his first film award at the 1997 Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, where he was given the Special Prize for Best Actor. He later went on to receiving more awards in the same category for the films Thulladha Manamum Thullum (1999) and Thirupaachi (2005).[citation needed] During the Reliance Mobile Vijay Awards 2007, Vijay won the Entertainer of the Year Award for his performance in the films Pokkiri and Azhagiya Thamizh Magan.[6] In 2005, Radio Mirchi, Chennai in association with Spark 2005 Advertising Club, Chennai gave Vijay an Silver Jubilee award for Public Service Announcement.[7] In 2007, Vijay was given an honorary doctorate diploma from the M. G. R. University, Chennai along with S. Shankar.
Personal life

Vijay married London-based Sri Lankan Tamil Sangeetha Sornalingam[8][9] on August 25, 1999.[4][dead link] They have two children a son, Jason Sanjay, born in 2001 in London[10] and a daughter, Divya Sasha born in 2005 in Chennai.[1] Jason Sanjay is known for making a special appearance in Vijay's film Vettaikkaaran.