4 min readHyderabadJul 15, 2026 10:07 PM IST
There is a version of Vijay Sethupathi that existed long before Sundarapandian, before Vikram Vedha, before Maharaja, before any of it. A version that did not dream of cinema, did not care about stardom, and only wanted to make sure his father never had to lower his head in front of anyone again.
In a conversation on the Truly Ram, the actor opened up about his childhood in a way that stripped away the celebrity and left only the boy from Rajapalayam who grew up counting money that was never enough.
‘I never dreamt of movies’
Recalling his younger years, Sethupathi said acting was never part of the plan.
“I don’t have any desire to do movies, sir. I’ve always loved working, sir. When I was in school, I used to go for daily wage jobs. After that, I worked at a telephone booth,” Vijay Sethupathi said.
“I’ve knocked on many doors in my life doing night shoots, sir. Whenever I want something, I think about how much I should really want it. That’s when your financial status helps you decide.”
Debt collectors and his father’s Bullet bike
His memories of childhood are not limited to the odd jobs he worked. Sethupathi also recalled the difficult days when debt collectors would come home, and how he chose to sit beside his father through it all.
“People say youth is full of poverty and hardship. I’ve faced that question many times from a young age. That’s all there was,” Vijay Sethupathi said.
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“Even when debt collectors came over or someone sat down, I was the one who’d sit with my dad. I was the one dealing with it.”
“My dad had this routine: around 9:30, he’d come, park his Bullet bike, and buy some fried rice to share,” Sethupathi recalled, his voice softening noticeably.
It was not a grand gesture. It was a man coming home on a motorcycle and bringing dinner. But the way Sethupathi described it, it was clear that the memory carried more weight than most of the awards on his shelf.
From odd jobs to Indian cinema
Born in 1978 in Rajapalayam, Tamil Nadu, Sethupathi moved to Chennai as a child and grew up in the Ennore neighbourhood of North Chennai. He has described himself as a “below-average student” who had no interest in sports or extracurricular activities. What he did have, from a very young age, was an awareness of what it meant not to have enough
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Vijay Sethupathi worked as a salesman at a retail store, a cashier at a fast food joint and a phone booth operator, all while still studying. He later graduated with a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Dhanraj Baid Jain College, and within a week of finishing college, joined as an accounts assistant at a wholesale cement business before eventually moving to Dubai to work as an accountant.
After returning to India, he gradually found his way into theatre, short films and supporting roles before making his breakthrough with Thenmerku Paruvakaatru. Vijay Sethupathi, now 48, is one of the highest-paid actors in Indian cinema and has over 50 films to his name.
From playing a goatherd in Thenmerku Paruvakaatru to a kidnapper in Soodhu Kavvum to a trans woman in Super Deluxe, the common thread across Sethupathi’s filmography is an ability to play people who live on the margins without making them feel small.
