joseph vijay chandrasekhar

Joseph Vijay^[1][3] known professionally as Vijay, is an Indian film actor and playback singer who works primarily in Tamil cinema.^[4]Vijay is referred to by the media as Thalapathy (commander).^[5][6][7]

Vijay was born to S.A. Chandrasekhar and Shoba in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Vijay initially appeared as a child actor in special appearances under his father's direction, starting with Vetri (1984) to Ithu Engal Neethi (1988). He made his debut under his father's direction as a teen-age lead actor in Naalaya Theerpu (1992), but his first successful film as lead actor was Poove Unakkaga (1996), which was directed by Vikraman.^[8][9] To date, he has acted in 61 movies as a lead actor and has won 40 awards including notable three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, one Cosmopolitan Award, one Indiatoday Award, eight Vijay Awards, three Edison Awards, two Vikatan Awards and was nominated for one National Award UK.^[10] Vijay as a playback singer has sung 32 songs to date

Vijay was born on 22 June 1974 as Joseph Vijay in Madras (now Chennai). His father S. A. Chandrasekhar is a Tamil film director and his mother Shoba is a playback singer and carnatic vocalist. He had a sister Vidhya, who died when she was two years old. Vidhya's death affected Vijay very much. It has been said by his mother that Vijay, who was very talkative, naughty and hyperactive as a child, became silent after Vidhya's death.^[11] His sibling Vidhya's story is depicted in the 2005 film Sukran, where Vijay played an extended cameo.^[12]

Vijay spent his entire childhood in Chennai. He did his schooling initially in Fathima Matriculation Higher Secondary School^[13] at Kodambakkam and later joined Balalok Matriculation Higher Secondary School^[14] at Virugambakkam and went on to pursue a degree in Visual Communications from Loyola College, though he would eventually drop out as he was more interested in pursuing acting.^[11]

Vijay married his ardent fan, a Hindu British Sri Lankan Tamil, Sangeetha Sornalingam, on 25 August 1999 in both Hindu and Christiantradition.^[15][16] They have two children, a son Jason Sanjay born in 2000 in London^[17] and a daughter Divya Shasha born in 2005 in Chennai.^[18] Jason Sanjay made a cameo appearance with his father in Vettaikaaran (2009) and Divya Shasha portrayed a small role as her father's pre-teen daughter in Theri (2016).