Birth name Kennedy John Victor NationalityInde Birth 17 april 1966 (58 years) at Chennai (Inde) Awards National Film Award for Best Actor, Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor, Filmfare Awards South
Vikram (born as Kennedy John Victor on 17 April 1966) is an Indian film actor who predominantly appears in Tamil language films and has won six Filmfare Awards as well as one National Film Award and Tamil Nadu State Film Award amongst other recognitions and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the People's University of Milan in May 2011.
He made his debut in the 1990 film En Kadhal Kanmani, which was followed by a series of small-budget Tamil, Malayalam and Telugu films in the 1990s, many of which went unnoticed. However the success of Bala's tragedy film Sethu (1999), in which Vikram appeared as a rogue turned lover, started Vikram's successful career as an actor. In the early 2000s, Vikram appeared in a series of masala films, with Dhill (2001), Gemini (2002), Dhool (2003) and Saamy (2003) becoming commercially successful ventures. During the period, Vikram also appeared in diverse roles and received critical acclaim for his performance as a blind villager in Kasi and a Robin Hood-esque figure in Samurai. In 2003, Vikram's performance as a gravedigger with autism spectrum disorders in Bala's Pithamagan saw him win the National Film Award for Best Actor, with his character only speaking a couple of lines of dialogue in the entire film. His appearance as an idealistic lawyer with multiple personality disorder in Shankar's blockbuster Anniyan (2005) also won critical acclaim, as did his appearance as a superhero in Kanthaswamy (2009). Vikram's portrayal of Veeraiya, a tribal leader inspired by the Ramayana character Ravana, in Mani Ratnam's Raavanan saw him secure further accolades, as did his appearance as a mentally challenged adult with the maturity of a six-year-old boy in Deiva Thirumagal (2011). He consequently appeared in multiple get-ups as a bodybuilder and a crippled hunchback, losing up to 35 kilograms for sequences, during the making of Shankar's romantic thriller I (2015) and won rave reviews from critics for his performance. It is currently the third highest-grossing Tamil film of all time.
Vikram has promoted various social causes and appeared as the Youth Envoy for the United Nations Human Settlements Programme in 2011. He has been a brand ambassador of Sanjeevani Trust and a school for special children, Vidya Sudha, which he stayed at during the making of Deiva Thirumagal as well as having long-term associations with the Kasi Eye Care and running his own welfare association through the Vikram Foundation.
Biography
Vikram met his wife, Shailaja Balakrishnan, for the first time when he was in crutches, following three years of being hospital-ridden after his broken leg in the late 1980s. Vikram got married to Shailaja in Guruvayoor in an event which saw dozens of other couples get married at the same time at the same place. The pair also then had a low-key wedding ceremony conducted at the church at Loyola College, Chennai. She originates from Thalassery, Kerala and now works as a psychology teacher at a leading Chennai school. Shailaja also worked in the team of Deiva Thirumagal by giving professional advice on how people with special needs are treated and helping develop the characteristics of the character played by Vikram. Vikram has a daughter, Akshita, and a son, Dhruv, with Vikram suggesting that his son is a keen actor. He resides near the beach in Besant Nagar, Chennai and has stated that he would remain based in Chennai regardless of any offers in other regional films.
, 2h24 Directed byS. D. Vijay Milton GenresDrama, Action, Romance ThemesTransport films, Road movies ActorsVikram, Samantha Ruth Prabhu, Pasupathy, Jackie Shroff, Rahul Dev, Abhimanyu Singh Roles unnamed driving instructor Rating52% A driving instructor (Vikram), who calls himself by various names such as "James Bond", "Mani Ratnam", "Sunil Gavaskar" etc. (but never reveals his actual name), is assigned by a local goon Doss (Pasupathy) to deliver a "package" to one Pooran Singh (Abhimanyu Singh) in Mussoorie. The "package" is Shakeela (Samantha Ruth Prabhu), an orphaned woman who has failed her driving test 14 times. The driving instructor is constantly irritated by Shakeela's antics during the journey to Mussoorie, but soon falls in love with her after finding out that she is an orphan. At Mussoorie, he learns from Pooran Singh that Shakeela is to be "delivered" to one Daksha Bhai (Rahul Dev), an upper-caste landlord from an Uttarakhand-based village. He "delivers" Shakeela to Daksha Bhai and is invited to stay at his ancestral mansion for a couple of days. During the stay, he finds out why Shakeela has been "delivered" to Daksha Bhai.
, 2h14 Directed byDirector Pandiraj GenresDrama, Comedy ActorsOviya, Sivakarthikeyan, V. Jayaprakash, Vikram, Sathish, Prakash Raj Rating55% Ambikapathy ('Pakoda' Pandian) is an orphan runaway who escapes from his cruel uncle to Chennai and eventually ends up at Marina beach. He earns his livelihood by first hawking drinking-water packets and later poached chickpeas to the public visiting Marina beach. His calm and matured manners win him the admiration and later the friendship of other boys employed at the beach. Ambikapathy has a passion to be educated, so he works in the day to save money for schooling whilst trying to study at night on his own. His ultimate dream is to be enrolled in a proper school. His passion also slowly begins to rubs-off on the other children on the beach.
, 2h36 Directed byA. L. Vijay GenresThriller, Action ActorsVikram, Jagapati Babu, Anushka Shetty, Amy Jackson, Raai Laxmi, Nassar Roles Shiva / Kenny / Arjun Rathore Rating60% On 1 January 2010, a sudden bomb blast occurs in London, killing several people. The scene shifts to the same place after exactly a year, where a blind man Kenny Thomas (Vikram) lays flowers on the memorial and mourns someone's death during the bomb blast. He is then given some secret details by a mysterious woman. Kenny then takes a taxi driven by Satyan (Santhanam) who is a comical Tamil guy. He drops Kenny at a place and waits for him to return. But Kenny actually goes inside to kill someone. He kills him and throws him down. Seeing the corpse, Satyan flees. During this entire scene, Kenny is shown to produce a sound from his mouth, to find his way, which is later shown as echolocation. Later Kenny is shown to play piano in a local church, and he is blind he has so many people who care for him. In the meantime, Kenny carries out two more murders, taking the same taxi driven by the innocent Satyan, following instructions from the mysterious woman.
, 2h3 Directed bySuseenthiran GenresComedy, Action, Romance ThemesFilms about music and musicians, Musical films ActorsVikram, Deeksha Seth, K. Viswanath, Pradeep Rawat, Avinash, Mayilsamy Roles Anal Murugan Rating33% 'Anal' Murugan (Vikram) a gym boy who dreams of becoming a successful villain in films lives along with Thambi Ramaiah and his gym co-boys. He bumps into an old man Dakshinamoorthy (K. Vishwanath) who is under pressure from his son Chidambaram (Avinash) to sell his orphanage to a scheming lady politician Ranganayaki (Sana) who is majorly into land grabbing along with her hatchet man 'Vaappa' Abdul Kadhir (Pradeep Rawat). Murugan eventually falls in love with Dharshini (Deeksha Seth). The one-man army Murugan becomes the Dakshinamoorthy’s saviour as Ranganayaki and her men are after them. How Murugan single-handedly fights the powerful politician and brings them to light forms the rest of the story.
, 2h46 Directed byA. L. Vijay GenresDrama, Documentary ThemesFilms about disabilities ActorsVikram, Sara Arjun, Anushka Shetty, Amala Paul, Nassar, Santhanam Roles Krishna Rating81% Krishna (Vikram) is intellectually disabled and has the mental ability of a six-year old. He lives a peaceful life in the hill station of Ooty. He is cared for by Victor (Krishna Kumar), the owner of a chocolate factory where Krishna works. One day he excitedly announces to the village that he will become a father. That night, his daughter is born, but his wife Banumathy dies during childbirth. Unable to grasp the concept of death, he simply accepts that his wife has "gone to God" and starts life as a father. He names his daughter Nila, and raises her with love and care. She soon grows into a happy young girl (Sara). With the help of Victor and his other mentally challenged friends, Krishna enrolls Nila in school.
, 3h10 Directed bySusi Ganeshan OriginInde GenresDrama, Science fiction, Thriller, Comedy, Action, Adventure, Musical, Crime, Romance ThemesFilms about music and musicians, Films about sexuality, LGBT-related films, Transgender in film, Superhero films, Musical films, LGBT-related films, LGBT-related film, Cross-dressing in film ActorsVikram, Shriya Saran, Ilavarasu, Prabhu, Krishna, Ashish Vidyarthi Roles Kandasamy Rating51% The film's plot revolves around Kanthaswamy (Vikram), who is an Income Tax officer in the CBI, and his friends, granting the wishes of the needy who write letters to a local Lord Muruga temple by disguising himself as an anthropomorphic rooster. During a CBI income tax raid, he discovers a stash of black money owned by Ponnusamy (Ashish Vidyarthi), a rich and corrupted entrepreneur. Ponnusamy pretends to be paralysed to escape the questioning. Angered by the news that her father is paralysed, Ponnusamy's daughter, Subbulakshmi (Shriya Saran) goes after Kanthaswamy to seek revenge by pretending to be in love with him. Kanthaswamy, knowing Subbulakshmi's real intentions plays along in the game. This forms a cat and mouse chase between the two. In a comical role, Thengakadai Thenappan (Vadivelu) is also sought after by a local police inspector who tries to solve the mystery of "Lord Muruga saving the people". The fate of Kanthaswamy's disguise leads into the climax of the story. The local police inspector was able to bring out the truth that a CBI is involved in the role behind the secret work of helping the needy people although he was not able to confirm it. Kanthaswamy finds the password of Subbulakshmi's family bank account, in which the black money is illegally saved. He tricks Subbulakshmi into revealing the password and answers for the security questions indirectly. Kanthaswamy finally transfers the money to his account which would be used for helping the poor and needy people. Ironically, in the end, Subbulakshmi's father was paralysed at the end knowing that the password which was used by him to access his black money was changed. After that Subbulakshmi and Kanthaswamy were married and were living in northern India. Kanthaswamy saw some letters tied to a tree, just like the ones at the Lord Muruga temple. He reads one and puts it into his pocket with a secret smile, which meant he will pursue being the anthropomorphic rooster again.
, 2h47 Directed byN. Linguswamy GenresAction ThemesFilms about music and musicians, Musical films ActorsVikram, Trisha Krishnan, Prakash Raj, Raghuvaran, Ashish Vidyarthi, Lakshmi Gopalaswamy Roles Shekhar Rating57% The story follows a tug of war between two underworld gangs trying to outsmart each other. Chinna’s (Prakash Raj) gang, the smaller of the two, struggles to overtake Periyavar’s (Raghuvaran) gang until a man named Sekar (Vikram) gives Chinna’s gang new life. Sekar is a man of steel, physically and mentally, who had idolised Chinna in his childhood; he is similar to the character Bhima from the ancient Hindu epic Mahabharata. Sekar challenges Periyavar’s group and puts Chinna on top.
, 3h1 Directed byS. Shankar OriginInde GenresDrama, Thriller, Action, Horror, Crime ThemesFilms about music and musicians, Psychologie, Musical films ActorsVikram, Sadha, Prakash Raj, Vivek, Nassar, Nedumudi Venu Roles Ramanujam 'Ambi' Iyengar / Remo / Anniyan Rating82% Ramanujam Iyengar, also known as Ambi, is an orthodox Brahmin and a straightforward consumer protection advocate living in Chennai. He expects everyone to follow the laws and prosecutes those who flout them. However, his efforts fail as circumstantial evidence always seems to favour the accused. He also fails to raise civic awareness due to pervasive corruption and a general lack of seriousness. Frustrated at his inability to bring about a change in society, his suppressed anger manifests itself in an alter-ego named "Anniyan", a grim reaper-themed serial killer who punishes corrupt and indifferent people. Anniyan creates a website, compiles a list of wrongdoers from his site, and kills them using punishments described in the Garuda Purana, one of the ancient Hindu scriptures.
, 2h18 Directed byShafi GenresDrama, Comedy, Action, Romance ThemesFilms about music and musicians, Musical films, Bollywood ActorsVikram, Asin Thottumkal, Pasupathy, Vadivelu, Sindhu Tolani, Biju Menon Roles Mathi Rating53% Govindan (Manivannan) is a thief who has two children: Aadhi (Pasupathy) and Arivumathi (Vikram). Years go by and the two, Aadhi and Madhi, decide to stop stealing and mend their ways and lead a hardworking life along with their father. They migrate to neighboring village and meet a retired agricultural officer, Chidambaram (Vijayakumar) who is in deep debt and is under pressure from the village's landlord, Kalingarayar (Murali) to clear his debts. In efforts to help Chidambaran, Mathi confronts Seetha Lakshmi (Asin), Kalingarayar's daughter, who comes to collect the money Chidambaram owes her father. Seetha Lakshmi starts to acquire a liking for Mathi but keeps it hidden due to her father's atrocious temper. In an attempt to teach Kalingarayar a lesson, Mathi forcibly ties the mangalsutram around Seetha's neck. Kalingarayar, realizing his daughter's love for Mathi, comes down to arrange a grand remarriage between the two. But things go awry when Manicka Vel (Biju Menon), Seetha Lakshmi's maternal uncle, comes to town in an effort to stop the wedding between the two as he has plans of marrying her and wiping her family fortune.