Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar (Tamil: ; born June 22, 1974), known mononymously as Vijay, is an Indian film actor, andplayback

singer. He is the son of film producer and director S. A. Chandrasekhar. After performing uncredited roles as a child actor in films produced by his father, he made his film debut as a lead role actor in the 1992 film Naalaya Theerpu. Since then, he acted in several films of action and romance genres. He has also worked as a playback singer in most of his films, as well as a few films starring other actors. During his career in the Tamil film industry, he has won two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and was nominated for one Filmfare Award. Vijay has starred in several romance and action films, including the commercially successful films Poove Unakkaga (1996), Kadhalukku Mariyadhai (1997),Thulladha Manamum Thullum (1999), Kushi (2000), Priyamaanavale (2000), Ghilli (2004), Pokkiri (2007) and Kaavalan (2011). He also worked with several corporations as a brand ambassador and is a former brand ambassador of the Indian Premier League cricket team, Chennai Super Kings.[1]

Contents
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1 Early life 2 Career o 2.1 Early years: 1992-2002 o 2.2 Commercial success: 2003-2007 o 2.3 Setbacks: 2007-2010 o 2.4 2011 onwards 3 Personal life o 3.1 Family o 3.2 Brand endorsement 4 Awards and honours 5 Filmography 6 References 7 External links

[edit]Early life
Vijay was born to film producer and director S. A. Chandrasekhar and Shobha Chandrasekhar, a Carnatic singer. He attended S.B.O.A Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Anna Nagar. He began post-secondary studies at Loyola College[2] in Chennai and entered in the acting field.

[edit]Career
[edit]Early years: 1992-2002

During his childhood, Vijay performed in uncredited roles as a child actor in films produced by his father, S. A. Chandrasekhar. 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-stared with Vijayakanth in the film Sendhoorapandi. His following films Rasigan and Deva were all low-budget movies. In his fifth filmRajavin Parvaiyile in 1993, he co-starred with actor Ajith Kumar, who, like Vijay, was also a rising young actor thenalso a bankable film star today. Also released that year were his romantic comedies Vishnu and Chandralekha which turned out to be poor grossers. The following year, Vijay continued to pursue romantic comedy film Coimbatore Mappillai which was a failure. The Vikraman-directed Poove Unakkaga was his first box office success which helped Vijay to become a recognisable actor. Vijay's tenth film Vasantha Vasal was an average grosser at box offices. Maanbumigu Maanavan and Selva were action films and flopped heavily. After more average romance films in 1997, like Kaalamellam Kaathiruppen and Love Today with the former a failure and the latter a success, 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 Surya Sivakumar who happened to make his debut in 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 which were well received at box offices with Nilaave Vaa a failure. In 1999, his film Thulladha Manamum Thullum earned him aSpecial Prize at the following year's Tamil Nadu State Film Awards. The following films Endrendrum Kadhal, Nenjinile, Minsara Kanna failed miscerably at box-office. At the start of the new millennium he did Kannukkul Nilavu with Fazil again but the movie failed at box office, although his performance was praised. He decided not to commit in films that took a year to release, which changed his trend. His next venture Kushi however, directed by S. J. Suryah, was a blockbuster of the year. At the end of the year, he acted in Priyamanavale which was once again a successful film. His 2001 comedy film Friends, directed by Siddique, also starring Surya Sivakumar, was yet again a commercial success. Badri, an action and drama flick, showed good results at the box office, but his following romance film, Shahjahan, did not do well. In 2002, he starred in Thamizhan alongside the then debutante Priyanka Chopra which again failed at the box office. Youth on the other hand, was an average box office grosser and Bagavathi, at the end of the year, was another below-average failure. The following year 2003 also began unsuccessful with Vaseegara and Pudhiya Geethai.

[edit]Commercial success: 2003-2007

However, his string of failure films was broken by the action-romance flick, Thirumalai, which had Vijay in a new facial appearance. Udhaya, a film which began filming in 2002 but became delayed, finally released at the start of 2004, but was a box office failure. Ghilli, which was released in 2004, is considered to be one of Vijay's biggest hits today. Directed by S. 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. It was followed by Madhurey which was an average grosser at box office but considered a hit. 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 a super hit, the romantic flick Sachiena hit, and another masala film, Sivakasi a success, again by Perarasu. His next film Aathi, was released in 2006. This film failed miserably at the box-office and Vijay took a short hiatus from acting. He later accepted to work in Pokkiri that year. 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 diguised as a local gangster. Vijay's performance was well praised and he received an honorary doctorate title from the M. G. R. University.

[edit]Setbacks: 2007-2010
Late 2007, Vijay starred in the romantic drama film Azhagiya Thamizh Magan, and for the first time, he appeared in dual roles, as both the antagonist and protagonist, but was a huge failure. In 2008, he starred in the action film Kuruvi, again under Dharani's direction, ran for 228 days in the theaters but was declared a failure despite an average box office result. 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, which had Vijay in dual roles for the second time in his career, but again generated poor reviews. Vijay's next film, Vettaikaaran, directed by Babu Sivan, produced by AVM Productions and distributed by Sun Pictures, became a big hit with a revenue of 70 crore. Though it became a blockbuster hit, it was the only hit for Vijay at that time. In 2010, Vijay's 50th film Sura, another Sun Pictures distribution, released with mixed reviews and was expected to become a hit due to the success of his previous film and Mani Sharma's music as in his previous super hit, Pokkiri, but became one of his worst failures. After box office losses due to Sura and other recent Vijay films, theater owners in Tamil Nadu asked for an exclusive Vijay film or stated they will [3] not screen Vijay films.

[edit]2011 onwards
He associated with director Siddique again for Kaavalan, the Tamil remake of the Malayalam film Bodyguard.[4] It received positive reviews from both viewers and critics and was [5][6] declared a successful venture at the box office. As of late-2010, he was working with M. Raja for Velayudham, which is being produced by Venu Ravichandran. He is currently working with S. Shankar for the film Nanbanwhich features an ensemble cast. Vijay is expected to work with director Seeman in his forthcoming film Pagalavan as well as with Mani Ratnam in his next venture, currently being discussed.[7][8]

[edit]Personal life

[edit]Family
Vijay married Sangeetha Sornalingam[9][10] of Sri Lankan Tamil descent on August 25, 1999. They have [11] two children, a son Jason Sanjay born in 2000 in London, and a daughter Divya Saasha born in 2005 in Chennai.

[edit]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 [12] Cola products. As of August 2010, Vijay was signed by Jos Alukkas as their brand ambassador for [13][14] Tamil Nadu.

[edit]Awards and honours

Vijay received his first civilian honour, the Kalaimamani Award, and his first film-related award, the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor for Kadhalukku Mariyadhai, in 1999. He later received M. G. R. Award the following year. His next film award was in 2005, where he won a Tamil Nadu State Film Special Prize for Best Actor for Thirupaachi. Vijay was bestowed with an honorary doctorate in 2007. He received a Vijay Award for Entertainer of the Year for Pokkiri in 2008[15] and a Vijay Award for Favourite Hero for Vettaikaaran in 2010.[16] In 2011, Vijay was honoured with the Popular Tamil Actor Award at the 13th Asianet Film Awards, which is conferred by the Malayalam film industry.[17] Vijay was nominated for a Filmfare Best Tamil Actor Award for Pokkiri in 2008 and a Vijay Award for Favourite Hero for Kuruvi in 2009.

[edit]Filmography
Year Film Role Notes

1992 Naalaiya Theerpu

Vijay

Sendhoorapandi

Vijay

1994 Rasigan

Vijay

Deva

Deva

Rajavin Parvaiyile

Raja

1995 Vishnu

Vishnu

Chandralekha

Rahim

Coimbatore Maaple

Balu

Poove Unakkaga

Raja

1996 Vasantha Vasal

Vijay

Maanbumigu Maanavan

Shiva

Selva

Selva

Kaalamellam Kaathiruppen

Kannan

Love Today

Ganesh

1997 Once More

Vijay

Nerrukku Ner

Vijay

Kadhalukku Mariyadhai

Jeevanandam

Winner, Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor

Ninaithen Vandhai 1998 Priyamudan

Gokulakrishnan

Vasanth

Nilaave Vaa

Seluvai

Thulladha Manamum Thullum Kutty

Endrendrum Kadhal 1999 Nenjinile

Vijay

Karunakaran

Minsara Kanna

Kannan

Kannukkul Nilavu

Gautham

2000 Kushi

Shiva

Priyamaanavale

Vijay

Friends

Aravinth

2001 Badri

Badrinathamoorthy

Shahjahan

Ashok

Thamizhan

Surya

2002 Youth

Shiva

Bhagavathi

Bhagavathi

2003 Vaseegara

Boopathy

Puthiya Geethai

Saarathy

Thirumalai

Thirumalai

Udhaya

Udhayakumaran

2004 Ghilli

Saravanavelu

Madhurey

Madhuravel

Thirupaachi

Sivagiri

Winner, Tamil Nadu State Film Special Prize for Best Actor

Sachein 2005 Sukran

Sachein

Sukran

Sivakasi

Sivakasi (Muthappa)

2006 Aadhi

Aadhi

Pokkiri 2007 Azhagiya Tamil Magan

Thamizh (Sathyamoorthy)

Gurumoorthy, Prasad

Kuruvi

Vetrivel

Nominated, Vijay Award for Favourite Hero

2008 Pandhayam

Himself

Cameo appearance

Herova? Zerova?

Himself

Short film

Villu 2009 Vettaikaaran

Pugazh, Major Saravanan

Ravi

Winner, Vijay Award for Favourite Hero

2010 Sura

Sura

Kaavalan

Bhoominathan

2011 Velayudham

Velayudham

Post-production

Nanban

Filming

2012 Ponniyin selvan

Pre-production

[edit]References
1. ^ "Actor Vijay, Dhoni form mutual admiration society - Movies News News - IBNLive". Ibnlive.in.com. 2010-02-03. Retrieved 2010-07-18. 2. ^ [, http://www.itvfc.in/About/Life.php] 3. ^ [1] 4. ^ http://sify.com/movies/tamil/fullstory.php?id=14953241 5. ^ http://www.thehindu.com/arts/cinema/article1111607.ece 6. ^ Kaavalan is a Hit 7. ^ http://www.behindwoods.com/tamil-movie-news-1/feb-11-03/vijay-mani-ratnam-15-02-11.html 8. ^ http://www.indiaglitz.com/channels/tamil/article/64389.html 9. ^ "Rediff On The Net, Movies: Gossip from the southern film industry". Rediff.com. 1998-08-17. Retrieved 2010-07-18. 10. ^ "Rediff On The NeT, Movies: Gossip from the southern film industry". Rediff.com. 1999-01-25. Retrieved 2010-07-18. 11. ^ "rediff.com, Movies: Vijay meets his son on the Net!". Rediff.com. 2000-08-26. Retrieved 201007-18. 12. ^ "Coke signs up Vijay as brand ambassador - Tamil Movie News". IndiaGlitz. Retrieved 201007-18. 13. ^ "South Indian actor Vijay brand ambassador of Jos Alukkas - Chennaionline News". News.chennaionline.com. Retrieved 2011-01-18. 14. ^ "Ad. Bug bites Vijay again - Tamil Movie News". IndiaGlitz. 2010-08-12. Retrieved 2010-08-13. [dead link] 15. ^ http://www.hindu.com/mp/2008/05/06/stories/2008050650210400.htm

16. ^ K. Lakshmi (2010-05-30). "The Hindu : Cities / Chennai : Pasanga' steals show at Vijay awards". Beta.thehindu.com. Retrieved 2010-07-18. 17. ^ "Awards for Vijay and Nayantara - Tamil Movie News". IndiaGlitz. Retrieved 2011-01-18.

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