Vijayakanth (25 August 1952 – 28 December 2023), born Vijayaraj Alagarswami and known as Captain, was an Indian actor and politician. He starred in more than 150 Tamil films, almost always as an upright policeman, soldier or village hero, and unlike most stars of his rank never acted in another language. In 2005 he founded the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam, and from 2011 to 2016 he was Leader of the Opposition in the Tamil Nadu Assembly. He was awarded the Padma Bhushan posthumously in 2024.
Quick Facts
| Birth name | Vijayaraj Alagarswami |
| Born | 25 August 1952, Madurai, Tamil Nadu |
| Died | 28 December 2023 (aged 71), Chennai |
| Occupation | Actor, politician |
| Years active | 1979–2015 (film) |
| Known as | Captain; Puratchi Kalaignar |
| Notable films | Sattam Oru Iruttarai, Vaidehi Kathirunthal, Pulan Visaranai, Captain Prabhakaran, Chinna Gounder, Vanathai Pola, Ramanaa |
| Party | Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (founder, 2005) |
| Spouse | Premalatha (m. 1990) |
| Children | 2 sons |
Early Life
Vijayakanth was born in Madurai, where his father owned a rice mill. He was a poor student and left school early to work in the mill, spending his free hours in cinemas. In the 1970s he went to Madras to become an actor. Dark-skinned and without connections, he was turned away by producers for years.
Film Career
His first release was Inikkum Ilamai (1979), in which he played a villain. S. A. Chandrasekhar’s Sattam Oru Iruttarai (1981), about a man who takes revenge within the letter of the law, made him a star. The romantic drama Vaidehi Kathirunthal (1984) and Amman Kovil Kizhakale showed that he could carry gentler parts, and in 1984 he had eighteen films released in a single year.
He gave many newcomers from the film institute their first chance, notably in the thriller Oomai Vizhigal (1986). Pulan Visaranai (1990) and Captain Prabhakaran (1991), his hundredth film, in which he played a forest officer hunting a sandalwood smuggler, fixed his image and gave him his nickname. Chinna Gounder (1992), with him as a village arbiter, and the family drama Vanathai Pola (2000) were major hits, as was A. R. Murugadoss’s Ramanaa (2002), in which a professor organises his former students to punish corrupt officials.
As president of the South Indian Artistes’ Association from 1999 he organised star shows abroad that cleared its debts. In the industry he was known for insisting that every worker on his sets, from the lightmen up, ate the same food as he did.
Political Career
He had turned his fan clubs into a welfare network, and on 14 September 2005, at a huge rally in Madurai, he launched the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam as an alternative to the two Dravidian parties. Contesting every seat alone in 2006, it won about eight per cent of the vote and one seat, his own at Vriddhachalam. It took about ten per cent in the Lok Sabha election of 2009, enough to decide many contests.
In 2011 he allied with J. Jayalalithaa. The party won 29 of the 41 seats it fought, more than the defeated Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, and he became Leader of the Opposition. The alliance broke within months after a shouting match in the Assembly, and a number of his legislators later defected. In 2016 he was the chief ministerial candidate of a third front; it won nothing, and he lost his own seat. By then his health and speech had visibly deteriorated, and his wife, Premalatha, increasingly ran the party.
Death and Legacy
He died in a Chennai hospital on 28 December 2023 after a long illness. Hundreds of thousands filed past his body, and he was buried with state honours at the party’s headquarters. His admirers remembered a generous man who had fed and helped people long before he asked for their votes. His elder son, Vijaya Prabhakaran, is active in the party, and the younger, Shanmuga Pandian, is an actor.
Featured image: Vijayakanth at a function, January 2007. Photo by Kumarrajendran, in the public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
