Years active 2011-present | ||
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Vijaykumar is an Indian film actor, director and producer. He was a contestant in the first season of "Nalaya Iyakunar". He left the contest due to personal reasons and shifted to the US.
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He directed his first film in 2013, the film was initially titled as "Vidiyum Varai Vinmeengalaavom" and was later renamed as "Uriyadi" to make it sound audience friendly. The film is a political thriller and was released on May 27, 2016.
Early life
Vijaykumar studied Metallurgical Engineering at Government Engineering College, Salem. Before his movie venture, he was a software engineer and worked in companies like IBM, Infosys Ltd., Aditi Technologies, etc.,
He got relocated to the US in 2010 where he started writing the script for "Uriyadi".
Film career
Vijaykumar was a Project lead in Infosys Ltd., when he decided to switch over his career to films. He moved to US and started writing the script for "Uriyadi". He always wanted to make an entertaining movie along with a strong social message in it.
He started with his script in early 2011 and took more than one and a half years to complete it. He sketched more than 2500 shots for the story board purpose. As a new comer, he wanted to ensure that everything goes as per plan once the film goes on floors and hence created the storyboards to make the production easier. Once the complete script was ready, he came back to India in 2013 and started the shooting in July 2013 which was completed by October 2013. Vijaykumar was also the producer for the film and the background score too was done by him. The post production was completed by August 2014 and he started approaching the distributors for releasing the movie. In 2015, director Nalan Kumarasamy came in as a co-producer to release the movie since he had an idea of launching his own production house.
Uriyadi was released on May 27, 2016. Upon its release, The Hindu had a chat with Vijay and cited that Uriyadi is "A throwback to the 90s". Subsequently, he shared to Ananda Vikatan magazine about his experience of working with his Uriyadi team and also with Manam magazine on why he chose caste politics subject for his first film
Vijaykumar also had a session with BOFTA direction students on how he went on doing his independent film and got success After the interaction session, Director Cheran (director) talked about Uriyadi and Vijay and he mentioned that "Uriyadi is a film with a bold subject" Director Ram (director) also appreciated that "Uriyadi is a genuinely made film" Also several other directors lauded Uriyadi and Vijay during the meeting
Vijaykumar's Uriyadi turned out to be one of the most celebrated films of recent years, who had made heads turn by giving a raw and realistic film about caste politics and random violence which happen all around us in everyday life Several film critics and magazines gave positive reviews on Uriyadi and appreciated Vijay to a great extent. The Hindu mentioned that Vijaykumar is a solid filmmaker and that Uriyadi is "A gritty little film by a solid filmmaker". The Times of India lauded that Uriyadi stakes its claim in the list of the best films of the year" and gave 4 stars for the movie Fully Filmy mentioned that Uriyadi is "An unmissable masterpiece that deserves our support"
In his exclusive interview with Behindwoods.com, Vijaykumar mentioned how he learnt how not to make a film through the 2 short films that he made In another exclusive interview with Indiaglitz, Vijaykumar revealed that the entire footage of Uriyadi was lost during the super storm that flooded his first floor office in Jafferkhanpet on December 1, 2015.
Indiaglitz appreciated Vijay citing that "Youngster Vijaykumar deserves kudos for delivering a film with random violence as its theme without compromises, that hits you hard on your face" Smile settai gave a standing ovation after reviewing Uriyadi On reviewing Uriyadi, reviewer Prashanth mentioned that more than a review it is only going to be an appreciation session for Uriyadi and team and went on lauding Uriyadi and Vijay to a great extent for his bold attempts on making this realistic film Also reviews by Jackiesekar and Salt proved that Vijay delivered his best on his debut
In Ananda Vikatan review on Uriyadi, it is mentioned that Uriyadi is a trendsetter for the current film industry and is executed in a very appreciable way. In another review by Ananda Vikatan, they have mentioned that the way Uriyadi is handled is very different from the other caste based movies and the climax is very different and interesting. And also appreciated Vijaykumar for handling direction, production, acting and background score all by himself and executing them in a neat manner
Uriyadi completed 35 days in theatre when many other small budget movies find it difficult to hold on to screens for more than a week or two though they have good content On World Photography day, in an exclusive interview with the legend P.C.Sreeram by The Hindu, he mentioned that films like Uriyadi with unique scripts needs to be appreciated
On October 20, 2016, in a video in his facebook account, he thanked those who enjoyed Uriyadi and spoke about his next. He expressed that his next script will once again be a honest film and will reflect the problems faced by the common people. The screenplay for this script is expected to be completed by November 2016 and planning to start the shooting by February 2017. The movie is expected to hit the screens by September 2017