CHENNAI: The first actor since MG Ramachandran to successfully parlay his celluloid stardom into a career in politics entirely on his own, Vijayakant will be remembered for giving it all, on-screen and off.
Born Vijayaraj, he hailed from a fairly wealthy family in Madurai.
With no connections in cinema, he toiled hard to get his debut role in Inikkum Ilamai (1979) in which he played the antagonist, after changing his name to Vijayakant. His first bonafide success came in the form of vigilante actioner Sattam Oru Iruttarai (1981), directed by SA Chandrasekhar. It was this film that gave him the ‘angry young man image’, that he readily embraced.
R Sundarrajan’s Vaidhegi Kaathirunthaal (1984) introduced the depth of his talent to the audience and gave him his first all-centre hit. Though he faced tough competition from the giants, Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan, he forged a special place for himself in the industry.
In his 30s, Vijayakant played an aged cop in the cult classic Oomai Vizhigal. By headlining the project, he facilitated the debut of a group of film institute students like Aabavanan, Arun Pandian and R Aravindraj. The khaki he donned became Vijayakant’s lucky charm; he went on to play a cop in more than 20 films.
In the early ’90s, he scaled further heights in cop actioners and rural dramas. While he gave back-to-back hits as the urban policeman in Pulan Visaranai and Chatriyan, he balanced it with the moustache-twirling village heads he played in Chinna Gounder and Sakkarai Devan. With films like Captain Prabhakaran (from which he earned his epithet), he took on controversial issues like the hunt for Veerappan, building a fanbase for his stylised action sequences in which he performed without a stunt double.
The 21st century, saw him using his films as vehicles to carry his political ideologies to the masses, surprising the audience with a new unbeatable fighting machine avatar in Vallarasu, Simahasanam, Narasimha and Vanchinathan through which he unveiled the flag and logo of his future political party. However, it was AR Murugadoss’ Ramanaa that propelled his political aspirations.
Aside from being an actor who worked on multiple call sheets in his early days and refused remuneration from struggling producers at his peak, Vijayakant redefined the way junior artists and technical assistants were treated on sets as the president of the Nadigar Sangam. Through meticulously planned ‘star nights’, involving every major actor, he restored the union to glory.