Actor Vikram celebrates his birthday today. As we’re a big fan of the ‘Vaazhtha Vayadhillai’ ideology, Here are some facts about the star instead. You might probably already know these, but let us tell you anyway :
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[list_item icon=”entypo-eye”]The Ai star was born Kennedy Vinod Raj forty seven years ago to an interfaith couple Rajeshwari – Victor Albert.
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[list_item icon=”entypo-eye”] His stage name Vikram is actually a portmanteau. The actor disliked his given name Kennedy and instead took ‘Vi’ from his father’s name Victor, K from Kennedy, ‘Ra’ from his mother’s name Rajeshwari and ‘Ram’ from his sun sign, Aries (Ram) to get Vikram And voila, a star was born.
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[list_item icon=”entypo-eye”] He went on to do an English degree at Loyola college, alongside Arvind Swamy, Telugu star Venkatesh and his favourite director, Dharani.
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[list_item icon=”entypo-eye”] Nothing to do with Vikram, but notice how we cleverly use eye shaped bullets because he is acting in Ai.
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[list_item icon=”entypo-eye”]He started out as a theatre artiste and even won the Best Actor award from IIT Madras. On the way back from the ceremony, he suffered a bad accident and almost lost a leg. He was bedridden for three years and it was during this that he met his future wife, Shailaja.
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[list_item icon=”entypo-eye”]Vikram and Shailaja were married in Guruvaayoor at a mass marriage event. They have two children – a boy and a girl.
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[list_item icon=”entypo-eye”]His uncle is the Malaiyur Mambattiyan actor Thiagarajan which makes Actor Prashanth, Vikram’s first cousin.
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[list_item icon=”entypo-eye”]Vikram struggled for seven years to get recognised in the cinema industry. He found fame as a print model but failed to secure any movie roles.
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[list_item icon=”entypo-eye”]His first few film roles were major disasters at the Box Office. The star was considered unlucky by the notoriously fickle tamil film industry and film offers dried up.
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[list_item icon=”entypo-eye”]Due to lack of offers in Kollywood, the actor signed on to play small roles in a spate of Telugu and Malayalam movies, as a way to generate some income.
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[list_item icon=”entypo-eye”]Vikram was Mani Ratnam’s first choice for the movie Bombay and even did a photoshoot with Actress Manisha Koirala. Due to some conflicts, the actor later backed out and fellow Loyola alumni Arvind Swamy was brought in as replacement. There were no hard feelings though, as Vikram and Mani Ratnam went on to do the mega budget bilingual Raavanan after a few years.
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[list_item icon=”entypo-eye”]In his lean years, the actor even dubbed for stars Ajith Kumar, Abbas, Prabhudeva and Vineeth.
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Recommended
[list_item icon=”entypo-eye”]His big break was the movie Sethu directed by Bala. His portrayal of the mentally challenged protagonist brought him many awards and felicitations.
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[list_item icon=”entypo-eye”]For his movie Pithamagan, he won the National Award for Best Actor, making him only the fourth Tamil Actor to do so.
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[list_item icon=”entypo-eye”]Vikram’s father Victor Albert is also an actor. His most memorable role was that of Actress Trisha’s dad in the hit movie Ghilli.
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[list_item icon=”entypo-eye”]Shankar’s Multiple Personality Disorder based movie Anniyan propelled the star into the big leagues. His latest movie Ai, with Amy Jackson is one of the most anticipated movies of 2014.
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