Vijay's career graph has been markedly different from Ajith's. While Ajith's has had several ups and downs (think of a sine wave!), Vijay's has been a slow but steady rise to the top followed by a steep decline. He had the immense advantage of having a popular director as his father and so, found an easy entry into films. It was his father S.A.Chandrasekhar who introduced him as a hero in Naalaya Theerppu in 1992. But he did not stop there and continued to make several movies with his son as hero. Though these movies (in most of which Vijay was paired with Sangavi) were steeped in vulgarity and unabashedly targeted the front benchers, they achieved the important objective of keeping Vijay in the public eye.
Vijay's real break came with Vikraman's Poove Unakkaaga. The movie rewrote box-office records and Vijay, who departed from his typical roles to play a soft-spoken, lovelorn youngster, found his ticket to stardom. He perfected the role in movies like Love Today and Nilaave Vaa and gradually found increased acceptance among the fairer sex too. The peak that I mentioned before in his career was undoubtedly Fazil's Kaadhalukku Mariyaadhai. The movie was a blockbuster and the latest in a string of hits that placed Vijay in the hallowed company of Rajnikanth and Kamalahassan as far as the distributors were concerned. At that point, he could do no wrong as even Priyamudan, where he played a negative character of a youth obsessed with a woman, became a hit.
Vijay's downfall started with 1999's Endrendrum Kaadhal. His movies started falling like nine pins and he must have seen the writing on the wall with the failure of Minsaara Kannaa, which was helmed by hit director K.S. Ravikumar. His father hastened his downfall with the terrible Nenjinile. The last nail in the coffin, so to speak, was Fassil's Kannukkul Nilavu. The failure of this movie, which brought together the same team that was behind Kaadhalukku Mariyaadhai, has shaken Vijay's confidence. But his personal life has always been on an even keel and he was recently married to Sangeetha after an arranged alliance. Memories are notoriously short in Kodambakkam where an actor or actress is only as good as their last hit. With Kushi too being a disappointment at the box-office, Vijay is desperately looking for a hit for some time now to get back into the race and make things interesting for the viewers. He has several releases this year like Friends, remake of a Malayalam super hit and Priyamaanavale, reteaming him with Simran. Lets hope these push him back into the race.
After hits in the 2000’s such as Kushi, Priyamanavale, and Friends. He then had a string of films that did not do well in the box office and failed to receive much critical acclaim, however this did not affect his star status.Vijay's real break came with Vikraman's Poove Unakkaaga. The movie rewrote box-office records and Vijay, who departed from his typical roles to play a soft-spoken, lovelorn youngster, found his ticket to stardom. He perfected the role in movies like Love Today and Nilaave Vaa and gradually found increased acceptance among the fairer sex too. The peak that I mentioned before in his career was undoubtedly Fazil's Kaadhalukku Mariyaadhai. The movie was a blockbuster and the latest in a string of hits that placed Vijay in the hallowed company of Rajnikanth and Kamalahassan as far as the distributors were concerned. At that point, he could do no wrong as even Priyamudan, where he played a negative character of a youth obsessed with a woman, became a hit.
Vijay's downfall started with 1999's Endrendrum Kaadhal. His movies started falling like nine pins and he must have seen the writing on the wall with the failure of Minsaara Kannaa, which was helmed by hit director K.S. Ravikumar. His father hastened his downfall with the terrible Nenjinile. The last nail in the coffin, so to speak, was Fassil's Kannukkul Nilavu. The failure of this movie, which brought together the same team that was behind Kaadhalukku Mariyaadhai, has shaken Vijay's confidence. But his personal life has always been on an even keel and he was recently married to Sangeetha after an arranged alliance. Memories are notoriously short in Kodambakkam where an actor or actress is only as good as their last hit. With Kushi too being a disappointment at the box-office, Vijay is desperately looking for a hit for some time now to get back into the race and make things interesting for the viewers. He has several releases this year like Friends, remake of a Malayalam super hit and Priyamaanavale, reteaming him with Simran. Lets hope these push him back into the race.
Thirumalai in 2004 was a turning point in Vijay's career. It was a commercial hit and he began to portray a new look with a trimmed mustache with beard. After that, he appeared in the Dharani-drected Ghilli, one of Vijay's biggest box office releases to date and ran for more than 220 days in theatres, for which the producer, A .M. Rathnam held a function on the 200th day. The movie also boosted the careers of co-stars Trisha Krishnan and Prakash Raj as the former became a popular leading lady, while the latter was flooded with many supporting roles in big banner films. The back to back hits made Vijay focus more on action films. His 2005 releases Thirupachi and Sivakasi both directed by Perarasu were also box office hits. These successful ventures made Vijay a "minimum-guarantee hero" amongst producers, distributors and theater owners. Despite the Perarasu directed films in 2005, he starred in Sachien, released in the middle of that year, which was the last romance film he appeared in till date.
The following venture was Aathi which did not meet success like the previous hits. Vijay then teamed up with Prabhu Deva Sundaram in Pokkiri, one of 2007's biggest hits. The film was praised for his performance as an undercover cop and the story which was a remake of a Telugu movie. Azhagiya Thamizh Magan was Vijay's next release in 2007. The film had a huge opening during its Diwali release. The film lost its fame after release, however it was Vijay's first film in portraying dual roles and working with Shriya Saran.
His latest venture Kuruvi in 2008 with Trisha Krishnan and Dharani as director had opened large to mixed reviews all over the world. The movie has been bringing in lots of profits since the release. Prabhu Deva Sundaram has announced his latest venture, Villu (which was previously titled as Singam) to have Vijay play the lead role. The two will team together after Pokkiri's success. Vijay will be working alongside Nayantara.