Actor Joseph “Vijay” Chandrasekhar (Tamil: விஜய்) was born on June 22, 1974 to

famous tamil film producer and director S. A. Chandrasekhar and Shoba Chandrasekhar,
a classical and a playback singer. Vijay had a sister named Vidhya Chandrasekhar who
died at the age of two.

Vijay did Visual Communications at Loyola College, Chennai. Vijay’s classmates during
college are present-day film artistes Surya, Yuvan Shankar Raja, Karthik Raja, and
Vishnuvardhan.

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. Films like Rasigan, Vishnu, and Deva followed. Vijay co-starred with
Sivaji Ganesan in the film Once More, directed by S. A. Chandrasekhar in 1994. In 1995,
Vijay was in the lead role in the film Rajavin Parvaiyile which also starred Ajith Kumar,
another currently reigning film actor in Tamil cinema.
In 1996 Vijay starred in the Vikraman-directed film Poove Unakkaga. He also starred in
Love Today, Priyamudan, as well as Kadhalukku Mariyadhai for which he receive that
year’s Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor.

Following Thulladha Manamum Thullum, the films Endrendrum Kadhal, Nenjinile,

Minsara Kanna and Kannukkul Nilavu failed to meet his previous success.[citation
needed] He decided not to commit in films that took a year to release.[citation needed]
His next venture was Kushi in 2000 which was followed by films like Priyamanavale,
Friends and Badri.

Later on, he starred in Shahjahan, Thamizhan, Youth, and Bagavathi which were
followed by Vaseegara, Pudhiya Geethai, and his delayed film Udhaya. The films
Thirumalai and Ghilli were released in 2004. Ghilli, 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.[citation needed] The following year had other releases such as
Thirupaachi, Sachein and Sivakasi.

Vijay’s Aathi was released in 2006. In 2007 Pokkiri, directed by Prabhu Deva, was
released in 2007 and Vijan recieved an honourary doctorate title from the M. G. R.
University.[citation needed] 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, made him to be considered for a Filmfare Best Tamil Actor
Award. In 2008, he starred in Kuruvi, again under Dharani’s direction.

The year 2009 started off with the spy and action film Villu, which was directed by
Prabhu Deva. The film, which had Vijay in dual roles for the second time in his career,
released in January 2009. Vijay will be acting in his next film titled Vettaikkaaran,
directed by Babu Sivan, an associate director of Dharani, and produced by AVM
Productions, which was launched in February 2009.

Vijay got married Sangeetha Sornalingam, of Sri Lankan Tamil descent, on August 25,
1999. They have two children, a son born in 2000 in London, and a daughter born in
2005 in Chennai