Happy Birthday Vijay: Only die-hard Thalapathy fans would know these 7 facts about him

Vijay's father S.A. Chandrasekhar, a renowned director in the Tamil industry, gave his son a launch. He once said that nobody was ready to give Vijay his first film. Hence Vijay appeared as a child artist from 1984 to 1988 and then made his debut as the lead in 1992 film Naalaiya Theerpu.

Vijay is a huge philantrophist. Every year the actor spends a part of his renumeration behind the education of the underpriveledged. He also organized medical check-ups and treatment for the needy through various charitable trust, most renowned being his own ‘Vijay Makkal Iyakkam’.

Vijay has often confessed being Rajinikanth fan. In fact if reports are to be believed than Rajini was a huge inspiration behind Vijay turning an actor. Not only was he Vijay's role model, Rajinikanth also helped Vijay bag his first movie. The Theri actor narrated lines from Thalaivar's hit film Annamalai that helped him bag the role.

Vijay is extremely attached to his late sister Vidhya who passed away at the age of nine. He started his production house V.V. Productions which stand from Vidhya-Vijay Productions.

Vijay and Bollywood go hand-in-hand at various occasions. For those who did not notice, Thalapathy appeared in the song 'Chin Ta Ta' from Akshay Kumar's Rowdy Rathore. Akshay then remade his film Thupakki as Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty. Vijay has also worked with late Sridevi in Puli. Also, if reports are anything to go by, then Shah Rukh Khan would play the villain in his upcoming film Thalapathy 63.

Vijay's movies work extremely well in Kerala. In fact his movie Theri went on to become such a huge hit that it even beat the records of few Malayali films.

Among the many awards which Vijay has been honoured with, he won three Tamil Nadu State Film Awards and an honorary doctorate from MGR University. He was also awarded a Kalaimamani - which is one of the highest honours in the field of art in 1998 i.e. within six years of entering the industry.