V FOR VICTORY

Things are looking up for actor Vijay, who tells Chennai Times that he’s thrilled about the recent election results

Sreedhar Pillai

    Ilayathalapathy Vijay finally has a smile on his face. And why not? He’d gotten his huge fan base to root for J Jayalalithaa and her party during the recent elections. During the previous regime, he resented the family’s octopus-like hold on the film industry.
    On hearing about Amma’s landslide victory in the Tamil Nadu assembly elections, Vijay — who was shooting for his Rajadirected Velayudham — rushed to her Poes Garden residence. After meeting and congratulating Jayalalithaa, the actor took some time off to chat with CT.
    Starts off the actor, “I’m extremely happy that Amma had a landslide victory. She proved the pollsters wrong and decimated the erstwhile ruling party. It is a historic win and also proves that our electorate is intelligent and knows what’s best for them. Everybody from towns to villages wanted a change for the better.”
    Vijay says he is happy that in his own way, he lent support to Amma. Says the star, “I want to thank my fans who form the Makkal Iyakkam. They supported my endeavours and had total faith in my decision to support Jayalalithaa. They worked very hard at the grass-root level to achieve our goal.”
    For Vijay, Friday the 13th has indeed turned out to be a lucky day. He premiered the first look promo of his next film, Velayudham, on television. The promos were telecast at the same time when Jayalalithaa’s party was heading for a landslide win in TN and that ensured maximum eyeballs for the trailer cut. It was a marketing coup of sorts as the promo soon became the most-watched film trailer on the Internet.
    In the recent past, Ilayathalapathy has faced problems with the promotions for his films. In fact, his last release, Kaavalan, was devoid of publicity before and after its release as all the leading channels were controlled by the family in power.
    Ask him if he’s happy now that his next film’s promo has got a huge reach and he says, “I had a tough time releasing my last film Kaavalan. But I have forgotten all that like a bad dream. I am an actor who likes working silently. At the moment, let me savour Amma’s success and her phenomenal win, which augurs well for the state.”