Did 5 jobs, failed in 2 businesses too: Vijay Sethupathi became an actor under compulsion, now fee is Rs 15 crore, fell in love through online chatting

Vijay Sethupathi turns 46 today. You must have seen him in the role of villain Kali Gaikwad in Shahrukh Khan starrer film 'Jawaan'. His another film 'Merry Christmas' has been released on January 12, 2024. In this he is seen opposite Katrina Kaif. Apart from these two Hindi films, Vijay has worked in many big South films; Like Vikram Vedha, Super Deluxe etc. He is one of the popular superstars of Tamil cinema.

He has worked in almost 50 films in his 10 year long career, but it was not easy for Vijay to reach this position. In his initial days, he did small jobs like cashier, salesman, phone booth operator. Due to the greed of higher salary, he left India and went to Dubai, but things did not work out.

He had nothing to do with acting, but once a famous director of the South caught sight of him. He found Vijay's face quite photogenic. This director advised him to work in films. Following this advice, Vijay tried his luck in films and the result is in front of everyone. Till now, he has won many awards in his film career including a National Award.

Know more such interesting facts of Vijay's life further…

Vijay was born on 16 January 1978. His real name is Vijay Garunath Sethupathi. His early upbringing took place in Rajapalayam, Tamil Nadu. Here he studied till sixth class and after that his family shifted to Chennai. Here he did his schooling at MGR Higher Secondary School and Little Angel Higher Secondary School.

According to Vijay, he was not very good in studies. He also had no interest in sports and extracurricular activities. His school friends used to make fun of his short height. Vijay's mother never took him to the theater to watch films in his childhood, because whenever Vijay saw someone crying on the screen, he himself started crying. Even after graduation, Vijay would occasionally go to the theater to watch movies. Vijay's interest in cinema increased when he started watching films on TV at home.

Vijay in the early days of his career.

Become a salesman, cashier to earn money

When he turned 16, he casually auditioned for the film Nammavar (1994), but was rejected due to his low height. He completed B.Com from B.D. Jain College, Thoraipakam. Did. After this, Vijay worked as a salesman at a retail store, as a cashier at a fast food joint and sometimes as a phone booth operator to earn pocket money.

After this he also tried his hand in cement business, but it did not do much. In search of more money, Vijay left India and went to Dubai. Here he was getting the job of an accountant for four times more money than in India. Vijay spent some time here, but then returned to India in 2003 due to his dissatisfaction with his job.

Did many businesses, also worked in a marketing company

After this, he started the interior decoration business with his friends. After doing this work for some time, he joined a marketing company which manufactured readymade kitchen products. Vijay had tried his hand in many types of businesses, but he did not get much success in any of them. Vijay had said in an interview that if any of my businesses had worked, I would never have become an actor, but fate had something else planned for me.

One day I saw the poster of Chennai's theater group Koothupattarai. Seeing this he remembered the words of famous South director Balu Mahendra. In fact, once Vijay met her and while giving a compliment to Vijay, she said – Your face is very photogenic. When he couldn't find any way, Vijay thought why not try his hand in acting.

Vijay played the role of Dhanush's friend in the film 'Pudupettai'.

Came into films out of greed for money

According to Vijay, at that time he had no ambition nor could he see any direction in which to move forward. He just aspired to buy a house and a car to live in. They also wanted their loans to be repaid as soon as possible. He had no more ambitions in life than that. When someone told him that you can earn five thousand rupees a day by working in a TV serial. So he thought why not try it. In this way, without any acting background or connection, he entered the world of acting.

He joined Chennai's theater group Kuthupattarai as an accountant where initially he used to just observe the actors there. He started his career as a background actor. He also got the role of hero's friend in some films. Apart from this, he also worked in some TV series, including the famous series Pain which came in March 2006. After this, Vijay felt that his career as a television actor could shine, so he asked for more work from TV serial producing companies, but he was disappointed.

Got Rs 250 as a background artist.

Vijay also started working as background artists. He received only Rs 250 for working as a background artist in the film Dishyum in 2006. Apart from this, he also worked in many short films.

Vijay did not take any training in acting, but while working in TV serials and films, he started paying attention to its nuances. In an interview, Vijay had said, during that time I started learning about cinema, what is a script, what is dialogue delivery. I understood all this while working. I made assistant directors my friends and used to go to watch films with them. He used to say – This BGM (background music) is good. This scene was not shot well, this scene is good etc. I got to learn a lot from this.

Got his first break as a lead actor in 2010

Meanwhile, Vijay auditioned for the film Pudupettai in which he was selected and got the role of Dhanush's friend. After this he got supporting roles in films like Lee (2007), Vennila Kabadi Kuzhu (2009) and Naan Mahan Alla (2010). In 2010, he got work in the Tamil-Kannada film Akhara.

Vijay was first offered the lead role in the Tamil version of this film, but later the director gave him the role of villain in the Kannada version of the film. This film was made but was never released in theatres. Director Seenu Ramsay had seen Sethupathi's talent in an audition, so he offered him the lead role in his film 'Thenmerku Paruvakaatru'. This film was released in 2010 which won three National Awards. One of these awards was for Best Tamil Feature Film.

2012 proved to be the turning point for Vijay's career. His three released films were critically and commercially successful, which increased his popularity. He was seen in a negative role for the first time in the film Sundarapandian. For his performance in the film Pizza, Vijay received the Best Actor Critics Award at the South India International Movie Awards. By the end of 2012, Sethupathi was included in the list of best Tamil actors. He came to be called the rising star of Kollywood.

By 2016, Vijay had established himself as a big star in the South Industry. He kept a mix of parallel and commercial projects in his career. In 2018-2019, the situation was such that he was doing so many films that one of his films was being released every month.

During this period, there were some of his films which were rejected by the critics and the audience. These include films like 'Annabelle Sethupathi' and 'Laabam'. Regarding this, Vijay had said in an interview that he is not in the habit of saying no to people and he is trying to make a habit of it.

Love blossomed through online chatting, got married

Talking about Sethupathi's personal life, he married his girlfriend Jessie in 2006. When Vijay was working in Dubai, he met Jessie there after which both of them started dating. Vijay returned from Dubai in 2003, but his love for Jessie did not diminish. In 2006, he made Jessie his partner. After this, both of them became parents of two children – son Surya and daughter Shreeja. Vijay had named his son Surya in memory of his school friend, whose name was also Surya and who had died. Suriya played Sethupathi's childhood character in the film Naanum Rowdy Dhan (2015). After this, he was also seen in Sethupathi's another film Sindhubadh (2019).

Vijay with wife Jessie, son Surya and daughter Sreeja.

Referring to his love story in an interview, Vijay had said, we became friends even when we had not even seen each other. We connected with each other through online chatting and became very close friends. She was my friend's colleague. I was 24 years old when we got married. If you ask when and why we got married, I will not be able to explain it to you. I don't put too much thought into things.

Opened my own production house

After a successful acting career, Vijay opened a production house in his own name in 2014. His produced film Orange Mittai was highly appreciated, after which he made films like Merku Thodarchi Malay and Janga.

Madhavan had said, Vijay is the next Kamal Haasan

R Madhavan also worked with Vijay in the film 'Vikram Vedha'. After working with him, Madhavan was so impressed that he called Vijay the next Kamal Haasan.

While sharing the experience of working with Vijay in an interview, Madhavan had said, we had never worked together before with Vikram Vedha. Our training and rehearsals for the film also took place separately. When we met on the first day of shooting, our scene showed the rivalry between police officer Vikram and criminal Vedha. As actors too, initially the attitude between us was that let's see who is better, but all this did not last for more than 40-45 minutes. After the take, when we sat and started talking, Vijay told me that he liked my work very much and I too could not stop praising him.

Muttiah Muralitharan's biopic was abandoned due to controversies

Vijay was approached for the sports drama film 800. This film was a biopic of Sri Lankan cricketer Muttiah Muralitharan. However, later the actor refused to work in the film due to unknown reasons.

Muttiah himself later revealed why Vijay said no to the film. He had told that after saying yes to the film, Vijay started receiving threats from many politicians. Keeping the safety of his family in mind, Vijay refused to work in the film.

In an interview given to Zoom, Muttiah had told that during IPL, the director of this film told me that Vijay Sethupathi was staying in the same hotel as me for a shooting. When there was a chance, the director offered a meeting with me to Vijay.

Vijay liked my cricket skills, that is why he agreed to meet me. Everything went well during the meeting. He took out time after 5 days to listen to the script. He liked the script very much. Vijay said that he did not want to lose such a good story. Then he confirmed to work in the film. After this, we sealed the deal with them and started preparing the film from the production house.

Vijay left the film due to threats from politicians

When the news came out that Vijay was doing my biopic, then some politicians threatened him not to work in the film citing some wrong reasons.

Muttiah further said that he did not want Vijay's career to spoil because of him and his film. Then Vijay himself withdrew from this biopic.

When Vijay refused to work in the film, the makers replaced him with Madhur Mittal of Slumdog Millionaire fame. The film 800 was released on 6 October 2023 in multiple languages ​​including Tamil, English and Sinhala.

Owner of net worth of Rs 170 crore

Vijay, who has spent a decade in the entertainment industry, has a net worth of around Rs 170 crore. According to media reports, he received a fee of Rs 21 crore for the film 'Jawaan'. Usually he charges Rs 15 crore for a film. And for a brand endorsement he earns around Rs 50 lakh. Let's charge.

Vijay has made a lot of investments in real estate. He has a bungalow worth Rs 50 crore in Chennai. Along with Chennai, he has properties worth around Rs 100 crore in places like Kilpauk, Ennore. Vijay is also fond of luxury cars. He has a BMW 7 Series car worth Rs 1.78 crore. Apart from this, there is also Mini Cooper, Toyota Fortuner and Innova worth Rs 39 lakh.

Said on body shaming – I am happy as I am

Vijay had recently said in an interview that he had to go through body shaming in both South and Bollywood film industries. Vijay had said, I was like this, I was body shamed a lot. It happens, but the good thing is that gradually people accept you the way you are. Today wherever I go, people love me, it is a blessing. I thank the audience, I am happy as I am.

Vijay also talked about his fashion sense and said, I am sometimes conscious about my costume because I give importance to comfortable clothing. Many times people say that I am showing off and sometimes they say that I am very simple. I wear slippers, but it doesn't matter to me. I wear only what I am comfortable with.