About the struggle and rise of Chiyaan Vikram on his special day

Vikram was born in a Tamil Christian Family as Kennedy in Madras, Tamil Nadu, on 17 April 1966.His father, John Victor alias Vinod Raj was a native of Paramakudi and left his home to start a career in films.victor however,was not that successful and only managed to act in supporting roles in Tamil films and television serials and this inspired Vikram to take part in theatre lessons and become professionally trained in classical and cinema dance forms to ensure he became a leading actor. Rajeshwari, Vikram's mother, was a sub-collector and her brother, Thyagarajan is an established director-actor in the Tamil film industry; with his son, actor Prashanth, being Vikram's first cousin. Vikram is used as a screen name as he disliked his original name, Kennedy; the name Vikram was composed by taking "Vi" from his father's name, "K" from Kennedy, "Ra" from his mother's name and "ram" from his sun sign, Aries.

                    Vikram was educated at Montfort School, Yercaud, a boarding school in a hill station near Salem and graduated in 1983. He has mentioned that he used his opportunities at school well by taking part in karate, horseback riding and swimming and noted that such early exposure to activities gave him confidence as a youngster. Vikram hang around in the outskirts of the school's theatre club for a long period and often took part in backstage work before being handed the lead role in a school adaptation of Moliere's.Despite expressing his interest to join films after school, his father forced him to go through education with Vikram subsequently graduating in English literature from Loyola College, Chennai and working half way through an MBA programme.Through the prolific dramatics club, Vikram appeared in stage productions including college adaptations of The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial and Peter Shaffer's Black Comedy, receiving best actor awards for his performances.

                   After winning a Best Actor Award at a function held at IIT Madras, Vikram was knocked down by a truck during a major motorbike accident on the way home and suffered a serious leg injury. He remained hospital-ridden bed for three years during college and subsequently went through twenty three surgeries to stop his leg being amputated.Vikram fought very hardly with his situation,struggled and din't give up and he then returned to finish the final year of his degree after his accident and secured permission to finish his dissertation at home, as he was only able to walk on crutches for a short period.

                  Vikram met his wife, Shailaja Balakrishnan, for the first time when he was in crutches, following three years of being hospital-ridden after his broken leg in the late 1980s. Vikram got married to Shailaja in Guruvayoor in an event which saw dozens of other couples get married at the same time at the same place.

                        Vikram made his film debut in 1990 by appearing in En Kadhal Kanmani, a small budget love story featuring him alongside Rekha Nambiar, with Sridhar's Thanthu Vitten Ennai opposite Rohini being his next release. In 1997,Director Bala offered him the role of the rogue, Sethu (Chiyaan), in the film Sethu.To prepare for the character, Vikram shaved his head, lost twenty-one kilograms and grew his nails long for the role.Vikram then featured in Mani Ratnam's bilingual films Raavanan and Raavan, inspired by the ancient Sanskrit epic Ramayana, with Vikram featuring as the tribal leader, Veeraiya, in the Tamil version and the cop, Dev Pratap Sharma, in the Hindi version of the films which were shot simultaneously.His recent film "I" was directed by Shankar in which he played 3 different characters which attracted audience a lot.

                             Till now vikram has won 24 awards and was nominated for 35 films including 5 filmfare and one national award. 
      
                              " Wishing the great personality a veryyy happy birthday"!

source: wikipedia