CHENNAI: When actor-turned-politician Vijay started Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, which entered the electoral arena two years ago with the decision to face the 2026 elections, the Dravidian giants — DMK and AIADMK — said that the works done by the decades-old grassroots organisation could not be achieved in such a short time.
While he did not have an organisational structure comparable to theirs, what they did not take into account was the network of more than 85,000 fan clubs, which had been gradually converted into a movement to reach out to people as early as 2009.
Vijay’s first film, directed by his father SA Chandrasekhar, was titled Nalaiya Theerpu (Tomorrow’s Verdict), a name with political undertones that Chandrasekhar has invoked repeatedly in recent years. In interview after interview, after he became an established actor, Vijay offered the same careful promise, that he would enter politics to serve people at the “appropriate time”.
It was in 2009 that the first structural move in this direction was made. His fan clubs were rechristened the Vijay Makkal Iyakkam (VMI). While not a political party, VMI functioned as a social infrastructure network. Its work included setting up study centres, libraries and computer centres, apart from flood relief operations, medical camps, blood donation drives, and weekly milk and egg distribution in a limited capacity. In several places in North Chennai, residents still remember VMI distributing milk, bread and eggs during floods.
Apart from this ground-level work, Vijay’s meeting with Congress leader Rahul Gandhi in 2009 and his public support for social activist Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption movement were widely read as statements of intent. It was also said to have unsettled the then ruling DMK, which allegedly created hurdles for the release of his films.
By 2011, VMI had made its first electoral pivot, backing the AIADMK under J Jayalalithaa. Vijay and his father met her and pledged field support. VMI workers mobilised across 50 constituencies, of which AIADMK won 43. The collaboration produced VMI’s first major public political meeting held at Nagapattinam to condemn Sri Lankan Navy attacks on Tamil fishermen. Vijay appeared on stage and personally handed Rs 2 lakh in compensation to the family of a fisherman killed in one such attack.
Yet in 2013, he ran into trouble with Jayalalithaa over the tagline of his film Thalaiva — ‘time to lead’ — which allegedly irked the dispensation. The film’s release was delayed by 11 days over “law and order issues”. Vijay put out a video seeking the help of the CM and state for the film’s release and the team removed the tagline from all its publicity.
What followed was a decade of strategic visibility on issues that mattered to him. Vijay spoke out on Anitha’s death in the NEET controversy. He visited the families of the 13 people killed in the Thoothukudi police firing during the Sterlite protests, giving each family Rs 1 lakh. He also appeared at the Jallikattu protests on Marina Beach. In 2021, the experiment went public. VMI contested the rural local body elections, winning over a hundred of the 169 seats it contested across the state.
In 2023, Vijay resumed his educational award events, which he had used to felicitate top-scoring government school students, and turned them into platforms to speak on political issues in an attempt to connect with the youth.
TVK was formally launched in 2024, with most of VMI converting wholesale. Many who spent years doing groundwork, including ECR P Saravanan and KV Vijay Dhamu, have now been elected as MLAs.