Vijay Kumar is an Indian actor, writer, director, lyricist and producer. His directorial debut, ''

Uriyadi ''Uriyadi'' (Tamil: ) () is a 2016 Indian Tamil-language political action thriller film written, directed and produced by newcomer Vijay Kumar under the production banner Souvenir Productions, with Nalan Kumarasamy, Sameer Bharat Ram and Satish ...

'', a political thriller set in the 1990s, was released in 2016 to high critical acclaim and was lauded as one of the best political thrillers in Tamil cinema. His second project '' Uriyadi 2'' released in April 2019.

Early life

Vijay was born in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of ...

where he spent his schooling years. He then studied Metallurgical Engineering at the

Government College of Engineering, Salem The Government College of Engineering, Salem in Salem, Tamil Nadu, India, is an engineering education center in the state of Tamil Nadu. It is one of the three institutions offering Metallurgical Engineering as a full-time course in Tamil Nadu. ...

. A software engineer by profession, he quit his decade-long career in reputed companies like IBM,

Infosys Infosys Limited is an Indian multinational information technology company that provides business consulting, information technology and outsourcing services. The company was founded in Pune and is headquartered in Bangalore. Infosys is the ...

, Aditi Technologies, etc., to pursue his passion in cinema.

Film career

2009–2013: Career beginnings

He made a short film and applied to the ''Nalaya Iyakunar'' show in 2009, when it was in its first season. He was selected and subsequently screened two short films on the show. However, he had to leave it due to personal reasons. Vijay was a Project Lead in IBM when he quit his job to pursue his passion in filmmaking. He moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

in 2010 and began writing the script for ''Uriyadi'' in early 2011. It was initially title
''Vidiyum Varai VinmeengalaaVom''
(V4). He spent well over a year on the script, sketching more than 2500 shots for its

storyboard A storyboard is a graphic organizer that consists of illustrations or images displayed in sequence for the purpose of pre-visualizing a motion picture, animation, motion graphic or interactive media sequence. The storyboarding process, in th ...

2013–present

Back in India, Vijay Kumar started his production hous
Souvenir Productions
in April 2013. He conducted a three-month acting workshop for the actors as almost all of them were debutants. ''Uriyadi'' was released in theaters on 27 May 2016. Upon its release, '' The Hindu'' had a chat with Vijay and cited that ''Uriyadi'' is "A throwback to the 90s". Uriyadi 2, produced by

Suriya Saravanan Sivakumar (born 23 July 1975), known by his stage name Suriya, is an Indian actor, producer, television presenter and a philanthropist. He primarily works in Tamil cinema where he is one of the highest paid actors. He received numerou ...

2D Entertainment 2D Entertainment is an Indian film production and distribution company established by Suriya. Other key people involved are Rajsekar Pandian, Suriya wife Jyothika and Suriya brother Karthi. The company was named by the starting letter of Suriya ...

, directed by and starring ''Vijay Kumar'' released on 5 April 2019. He will be seen next in a youth action-drama that went on floors on 16 July 2021. It stars Vijay Kumar and Arsha in the lead and is produced by ''Reel Good Films''. The principal photography was completed on 3 July 2022. Further, Vijay Kumar will also play the lead in ''Reel Good Films second production. The film directed by Thamizh, has

Preethi Asrani Preethi Asrani is an Indian actress who primarily appears in Telugu films. She played the lead role in the Tamil soap opera ''Minnale'' on Sun TV. She debuted as a lead actress with ''Pressure Cooker'' (2020). Early life Asrani is a Sindhi ...

also in the lead. It also features

Pavel Navageethan Pavel Navageethan (born 17 January 1984) is an Indian actor and filmmaker who works in Tamil cinema. Acting career Pavel Navageethan's dream was to be a director, so he wrote scripts for films, but was unable to get producers. He then moved to ...

George Maryan George Maryan (born 23 March 1963) is an Indian actor and comedian, who has appeared in Tamil cinema. He started his career in theatre, before working in Tamil cinema and has often collaborated with film-makers A. L. Vijay, Sundar C and Priyada ...

and Dileepan. It has music by

Govind Vasantha Govind Vasantha (born 29 October 1988) is an Indian composer, singer, and violinist who works predominantly in Malayalam and Tamil films. He is one of the founding members of the musical band Thaikkudam Bridge, in which he is a vocalist and v ...

. The principal photography wrapped up on 4 September 2022. Vijay Kumar has also written the dialogues of the film.

Filmography

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Kumar, Vijay Tamil male actors 21st-century Tamil male actors Living people Tamil film directors 21st-century Indian film directors Male actors in Tamil cinema Male actors from Chennai Tamil-language film directors Film directors from Chennai Film directors from Tamil Nadu 1987 births