It is a great day for fans of Kollywood heartthrob Vijay, fondly called Thalapathy, as the actor completes 27 years in the film industry. The enthusiasm of fans is evident as they have powered the hashtag #27YrsOfKwEmperorVijay right to the top of Twitter trends on Wednesday.
Vijay made his Kollywood debut on December 4, 1992, in the film Naalaiya Theerpu. Interestingly, the film was directed by his father and filmmaker S.A. Chandrasekhar, and written and produced by his mother Sobha Chandrasekhar. The film, which also featured Keerthana, Easwari Rao, Srividya, Radharavi and Sarath Babu, however, did not fare well at the box office.
Chandrasekhar pitched his 18-yr-old son in the role of a young college student who stood up for rights. The veteran filmmaker later went on to admit that his decision to do so was wrong. In an earlier interview to Scroll, he said: “To be honest, I shouldn’t have made that film for him especially when he was just 18.”
In his second film, Sendhoorapandi in 1993, Vijay played the younger brother of actor Vijaykanth. In his film, Rasigan, which was again directed by Chandrasekhar, Vijay managed to seal his place in the hearts of a young audience. What followed in the coming years was a string of films where he played the romantic hero, and won family audiences and youngsters alike. His innocent looks and punchlines, coupled with the well-done song numbers was a hit. His energetic on-screen charisma and the fact that he certainly doesn't look his age (45 years), keeps his fan following strong.
What followed was an era of action thrillers from the star who catered to the formula his fans most loved. Thuppakki, Pokkiri, Gilli, Vettaikaaran are some of his best hits.
From the romantic hero, Vijay has also moved into more serious films, with the obvious elements of commercial films. His action-packed mass entertainer Mersal which dealt with corrupt systems, went onto trigger a controversy in 2017 with his dialogue ridiculing GST. In this year's Bigil, directed by Atlee, the makers pushed for the theme of women empowerment, but faced criticism for the poor portrayal of the subject.
Speculations have also been rife that that actor might take the political plunge soon, but there has been no official clarification.
