3 min readHyderabadJun 22, 2026 08:13 PM IST
There was a time when the family now associated with one of Tamil cinema’s biggest stars and the current Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Vijay, was simply trying to make ends meet. According to Shoba Chandrasekhar, they were a lower middle class family, a period when her husband S A Chandrasekhar worked as an assistant director and wasn’t paid in cash, receiving only food and transport to and from film sets for his trouble.
‘Vijay grew up in a middle-class family’
In an interview with Thanthi TV, Shoba Chandrasekhar recounted, “It was my own income from singing, that kept the household running, before my husband eventually gave up a government job to pursue filmmaking full time. In our modest setting, Vijay grew up in a middle-class family.”
Talking about Vijay’s childhood, she said, “My husband and I had hoped he would become a doctor, a wish that grew stronger after we lost our daughter. Vijay had his own plans at the time, wanting to become a pilot until he was about 18, before acting entered the picture.”
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The most difficult part of the account concerned Vijay’s younger sister, Vidhya, who died at the age of two in 1984, while S A Chandrasekhar was away filming. “Until then, Vijay had been a jolly, lively child, but my daughter’s death changed him and the rest of the family as well. Vijay, once talkative and a little mischievous, grew noticeably quieter afterward, and that his school teachers had even noticed him getting emotional whenever the subject of sisters came up in class.”
‘Vijay is reserved even with friends’
Shoba described Vijay as someone who laughs and opens up mainly around his close friends. “He stays fairly reserved otherwise and is not someone who talks a great deal even with people he is close to”. On his food habits, she said he has never been much of an eater or a food enthusiast, which she sees as one of the reasons he has kept up his fitness over the years. “However, dosa and mutton curry is among the few dishes he genuinely enjoys”.
On his behaviour, she remarked, “He likes to be alone. Even if you take him abroad, he sends off the family to shopping, and he’ll be alone in his room. I don’t know why but he doesn’t like to step out”.
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According to Shoba, Vijay doesn’t like taking advice. “It’ll be nice if we take advice from him but he doesn’t like it,” she added.
The actor, who spent more than three decades as one of Tamil cinema’s biggest stars, formed his political party, Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, in February 2024 and led it to victory in the Tamil Nadu assembly election in April 2026, becoming the state’s ninth Chief Minister the following month.
