'Thalapathy' Vijay as fondly known by fans, celebrates his 49th birthday today. The Tamil-star actor enjoys one of the biggest commercial successes in Tamil Nadu, similar to his predecessors 'Makkal Thilagam' MGR and 'Superstar' Rajinikanth. The journey to the top is never a smooth sail and the transormation from 'Joseph Vijay' to 'actor Vijay' came with one rollercoaster of ups and downs. On his birthday, here is a short lookback at how Ilayathalapathy became everyone's favourite Thalapathy:

Star Kid to Masala Hero:

Vijay is one of the biggest stars Tamil cinema has today, but he once faced sharp criticism from every nook and corner. Though he tasted early success with movies like Poove Unakaga (1996), Kadhalukku Mariyadhai (1997), his initial bouts of hits were attributed to him being a star-kid. [Vijay's father SA Chandrasekhar is a well known director-producer, and his mother Shoba Chandrasekhar is a playback singer]. Vijay by withstanding the test of time, has proved that being a star-kid does not guarantee automatic success and that it involves years of hard-work, proper script selection and a passion towards cinema in general.

In the early 2000s Vijay through his selection of films was labelled as a 'masala hero', which by no means is an easy feat to pull in comparison to a 'performance hero'. However his commercial success rate with films like Pokkiri (2007) and the mammoth box-office success of Ghilli (2004) were still being viewed as byproducts of Telugu film remakes. Despite this, trade was ready to bet on Vijay's rising star power and predicted that the actor would become a brand to reckon with in the future.

Consecutive Flops
This quickly came to a halt when Vijay had one consecutive flop after the other at the Tamil box-office. If  Azhagiya Tamil Magan (2007) started this trend, Villu (2009) and Sura (2010) sealed the deal. This was also a time when a majority of the Tamil twitter did not exist and the trolling instead came in the form of bulk SMS forwards. It wouldn't be a stretch to say that Vijay was one of the first known victims of brutal attacks and jokes, with respect to his movies and the ongoing 'masala image'. This was clearly a tough era for Vijay and movies like Vettaikkaran (2009), Kaavalan (2011) and Velayudham (2011) provided some solace.

Image Make over and transformation from Ilayathalapathy to Thalapathy:
2012 was a transformative turning point in Vijay's career. His movies Nanban (3 Idiots remake) and Thuppaki gave him a complete image make over, and the actor broke out of his 'masala hero' shell. Nanban in particular did a lot for Vijay since he was filling the big Aamir Khan-performance shoes, but convincingly pulled off the subtle lead character with ease. Nanban was also the last official remake in Vijay's filmography.

Thuppakki on the other hand catapulted Vijay to a new height. The actor superbly balanced both mass and class aspects, and the movie continues to be one of Vijay's best in his career. From here, there was no look back for the star. Vijay scaled new levels of success with Kaththi (2014), Theri (2016), Mersal (2017), Sarkar (2018), Bigil (2019),  Master (2021) and Beast (2022). The business for his upcoming Leo (2023) proves the market position 'Thalpathy Vijay' enjoys in Tamil Cinema.

Much debated Political Entry:
Vijay in politics is also a topic that widely gets discussed among Tamil cine buffs. Much like Rajinikanth once did, Vijay has dropped strong hints of his political aspirations and there are even talks of him contesting in the 2026 Tamil Nadu State Legislative Assembly Elections. The star sure has a strong people connect, and has never been the one to shy away from speaking against the ruling regime - be it with his takes against the state and central government policies in his movies, his real life condemnation of demonetization, his taunting of the BJP regime with a selfie after IT raids were ordered on the actor or just knowing the pulse of a common man (which is much better than stars of his stature with political aspirations). 

Naturally there is a strong wave of support if 'Thalpathy Vijay' were ever to don the political leader hat. While Vijay's political entry remains unofficial for now, the star actor sure has all the signs of becoming the next big star after MGR from Tamil cinema, with the potential for political success.

MovieCrow wishes the actor a very happy birthday and all success for his future endeavours.