| Alias | Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar |
|---|---|
| Age | 44 years |
| Height | 5'8" |
| Weight | 60.00 Kgs |
| Occupation | Actor, Singer, Producer |
| Language Worked in | Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam |
| Spouse | Sangeeta Sornalingam |
| Children | Jason Sanjay , Divya Saasha |
| Eye Color | Black |
| Hair Color | Black |
| Religion | Christianity |
| Education | He attended Balalok Matriculation Higher Secondary School in Virugambakkam, |
| Marital Status | Married |
| Parents | S. A. Chandrasekhar, Shoba Chandrasekhar |
| Favourite Cuisine | South Indian |
| Favourite Color | White |
| City | Chennai |
Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar (born on 22 June 1974), popularly known by his stage name Vijay, is an Indian actor, playback singer and producer, who works predominantly in the Tamil film industry. Son of film director and producer S. A. Chandrasekhar, Vijay made his debut as a lead actor in the 1992 film Naalaya Theerpu, and has since then starred in numerous commercially successful and acclaimed films in various genres, the most recent one being Thuppakki. To date, he has acted in 54 films as a lead actor.
Vijay has been widely referred to as Ilayathalapathy ("Young Commander") since the early period of his career.[3] He has been awarded two Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, nominated for one Filmfare Award and conferred honorary doctorate by MGR University for his extensive philanthropic works in 2007. He launched the Vijay Makkal Iyakkam, a social welfare organisation in 2009. He is also involved in politics, aligning with the currently ruling All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) in the 2011 Tamil Nadu assembly election.
In the start of 2011 he associated with director Siddique again, for the romantic drama Kaavalan, the Tamil remake of the Malayalam film Bodyguard also co-starring Asin. It received a positive response from both viewers and critics and was deemed to be a box office hit, in spite of the ruling DMK stalling its release in many theatres which forced Vijay to shell out his salary and spend an extra 4 crore (US$728,000) for the release of the film. During Diwali the same year, his next film, the action film Velayudham directed by M. Raja and produced by Venu Ravichandran released and was a box office blockbuster.
Velayudham became one of the top grossing films of 2011. His next release was Nanban, the Tamil remake of the Bollywood blockbuster 3 Idiots, where he essayed the role played by Aamir Khan in the original. Directed by acclaimed director S. Shankar, it released during the Pongal weekend of 2012 and was a box office blockbuster. Vijay's performance in the film was praised by critics, including leading Indian actor Kamal Haasan. Nanban went on to complete its 100th day theatrical run. Nanban is the biggest hit for Vijay at the time of release.
He made a special appearance in the 2012 Bollywood film Rowdy Rathore starring Akshay Kumar, directed by Prabhu Deva.
The action thriller film Thuppakki, directed by A. R. Murugadoss and produced by S. Dhanu, released on Diwali 2012 to highly positive reviews and was a commercial success across the globe. Thuppaki was declared as a blockbuster. The film officially entered into the 100 crore (US$18.2 million) club in kollywood and made Vijay only the second actor after Rajnikanth to cross this mark.
Presently he is acting in Thalaivaa under A. L. Vijay's direction. Following Thalaivaa, he will star in Jilla alongside Mohanlal, under the direction of debutante director Nesan who was an assistant director in Velayudham.