Joseph Vijay

Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar (born on 22 June 1974)^[1], better known mononymously as Vijay (Tamil: விஜய்), is a Tamil film actor, who has been a performer in Tamil cinema, as well as a playback singer and a spokesperson for companies in India.

Vijay began his career appearing in several of his father's directorial ventures in the early 1990s. He made his film debut in Naalaya Theerpu (1992). Since then, he acted in several films of action and romance genres. During his years in the Chennai film industry, he has been nominated for one Filmfare Award, while winning three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards.

Vijay has starred in several romance and action films, along with the some successful films Poove Unakkaga (1996), Kadhalukku Mariyadhai (1997), Kushi (2000), Ghilli (2004) and Pokkiri (2007). He is the current ambassador for the IPL cricket team Chennai Super Kings and has also served several commercial companies as a brand ambassador.^[2]

Early life

Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar was born on 22 June 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, Chennai and Visual Communications at Loyola College, Chennai.^{[4][dead link]}

Acting career

Vijay debuted as a lead role actor in the 1992 film Naalaya Theerpu, produced by his father. After a few other films, he co-starred 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 fatherS. A. Chandrasekhar in 1996.

The year 1996 he find his first success in the Vikraman-directed film Poove Unakkaga which was a Blockbuster and helped Vijay to establish as a emerging star in Tamil films. He found some flops and success with films that followed, which had an unorthodox climax like Love Today. In 1997 Vijay acted in 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 Best Actor Award.

In 1998 vijay did Priyamudan where he did negative role which did fairly well at box office. Then he acted in blockbuster Thulladha Manamum Thullum for which he received Tamil Nadu state Best Actor Award. In 1999. Then 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 was Kushi which was a super hit of 2000. The following films like Priyamanavale , a Malayalam remake by Siddique Friends along with Surya sivakumar were once again successful for Vijay and Badri another super hit movie.

Later on, he starred in Shahjahan an average grosser and Thamizhan which failed at the box office and got average success again in Youth, and Bagavathi.His next movie Vaseegara was an average grosser while 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 other major successes such as mega hit Thirupaachi, and a typical romantic jolly movie Sachein and a super hit Sivakasi.His only film in 2006 was Aathi which flopped.

Later in 2006 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 Gurkha role to act as. This made Vijay buy the honourary 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. His roles in this film, as the antagonist and protagonist,but became an above average grosser at the box office. In 2008, he starred in Kuruvi, again under Dharani's direction released with neagative reviews however failing to create a box-office impact, had earned profit for the distributors in some places.

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, which had Vijay in dual roles for the second time in his career,unfortunately the movie has turned out to be a flop at the box office. Vijay's next film Vettaikkaaran, directed by Babu Sivan and produced by AVM Productions, which was launched in February 2009 which will be releasing soon.^[5].He was paid Rs 6-7 crore plus distribution rights for Chennai city for Vettaikkaaran.^[6] Vijay is currently acting in Sura, in which he will co-star Tamanna Bhatia, directed by Rajakumaran and produced by Sangili Murugan and Directors M. Raja, Siddique and Lingusamy have confirmed that they will be casting Vijay in their next respective films. ^[7]

Vijay along with actors Surya Sivakumar, Jyothika Saravanan and R. Madhavan acted in a five minute docudrama Herova? Zerova? produced by Surya Sivakumar, in an effort to eliminate children who drop out of school at an early age .This film was directed V. Priya

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 January 2009, Vijay was once again chosen as the brand ambassador for Coca Cola products.^[8]

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 haven't won any bigger awards in his career, some of his awards are as follows.He 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).

In 2007, Vijay was given an Honorary doctorate diploma from the M. G. R. University, Chennai along with S. Shankar and was nominated for a Filmfare Best Tamil Actor Award for Pokkiri which released that year.

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.^{[9][unreliable source?]}

Personal life

Vijay married London-based Sri Lankan Tamil Sangeetha Sornalingam on 25 August 1999.^{[4][dead link]} They have two children, a son born in 2001 in London, and a daughter born in 2005 in Chennai.^[1]

Filmography

As actor

As playback singer

Vijay has also sang several ghaana songs in his own films. He has also lent his voice for songs for other actors, which were films produced by S. A. Chandrasekhar.

References

hero hazrul

External links

• Joseph Vijay at the Internet Movie Database