“Vijayakanth played a major part in shaping up Vijay’s career”, remarked SA Chandrashekar, ace filmmaker and father of Vijay at an anniversary event of the actor-turned-politician. Apparently, it was SAC whose film Sattam Oru Iruttarai which propelled Vijayakanth as a hero after his initial movies failed to take off. Speaking on the occasion, SAC was all praise for the star actor as to how he helped his son Vijay when he began his career.
“When my son wanted to become an actor, I made his debut movie Naalaya Theerpu, which didn’t do well. Then I felt that Vijay would be noticed if he works with Vijayakanth. I called up Captain and told him I wanted to meet him. Within minutes, he was right there at my place and asked what I wanted. I just told him about making Vijay act alongside him and the only thing he asked was ‘When we are starting?’
The film they acted together in was Senthoorapandi and it was a blockbuster and a stepping-stone for Vijay’s career. “Despite his big stature then, he never allowed me to talk about remuneration. He asked me to complete the film first.
Even now, I am seeing the same humble Vijayakanth whom I saw in ’80s,” reminisced SAC.
