Tamil cinema superstar Thalapathy Vijay has completed 25 glorious years of acting career on December 4 2017.

Vijay made his acting debut in the 1992 film Naalaiya Theerpu, directed by his father, SA Chandrashekhar. Even though the film was average, the actor stunned Kollywood by delivering three hits in a row after his first outing. Since then, Vijay has acted in 61 films and most of the films have been Box Office blockbusters.

On his 25th successful year, here are a few lesser-known facts about Thalapathy Vijay:

Vijay's real name is Joseph Vijay Chandrasekhar.

Among his fans, he is fondly known as Thalapathy. His fans are touted as the most active fans on social networking sites, including Twitter and Facebook.

Vijay is a great fan of megastar Rajinikanth and has acted as a child artist in his 1985 film Naan Sivappu Manithan. 

Vijay's father, SA Chandrashekar, is a popular director in Kollywood. Vijay has acted in 15 films with his father, including six as a child artist.

At 18, Vijay made his acting debut in Naalaiya Theerpu. His character's name was also Vijay and he later went on do eight more films with his real name, including his 2016 release, Theri.

Vijay delivered his first blockbuster in 1996, Poove Unakkaga, directed by Vikraman.

Vijay has bagged three Tamil Nadu State awards and seven Vijay awards in his career.

Like his mother Shobha Chandrasekhar, Vijay is also a good singer. His Google Google song from Thuppakki won him an award for the popular Tamil song of 2009. He is also an exceptional dancer. 

In 2012 and 2013, he was featured on the Indian edition of Forbes' 'Celebrity 100' lists, based on the income and popularity of Indian celebrities.

In 2007, he was awarded with Honorary Doctorate by Dr MGR University for his outstanding contribution to the Tamil film industry.

In 2005, one of Vijay's fan committed suicide as he was unable to procure a ticket for the star's film, Thirupaachi. The actor, who visited his fan's house later, requested his fans to desist from such behaviour. In 2013, another Vijay fan committed suicide following a delay in the release of his film, Thalaiva.

In his career spanning 25 years, Vijay has worked in 61 films till date and introduced 20 new directors in the Tamil film industry. 

He has worked with legendary Malayalam actor Mohanlal in one of his films, Jilla. The film went on to be a huge hit at the Box Office.

Vijay has done a cameo in Chinta Ta Ta song with Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar in Rowdy Rathore. Interestingly, Akshay has bagged the Hindi remake rights of Vijay's ThuppakiandKaththi.

Critics often call Vijay the darling of the masses. He is top Tamil superstar to have maximum number of Rs 100 crore hits (4) and one Rs. 200 crore blockbuster to his credit.

His recent release, Mersal, has set a new record to become the fastest Tamil film to cross the century mark in six days.

Vijay is also the third South film actor to have a Rs. 200 crore grosser after Rajinikanth and Prabhas.

Vijay's Ghilli, which released in 2013, was the first Tamil film to cross the coveted Rs 50 crore mark at the Tamil Nadu Box Office. The song Appadi Podu's popularity changed the film's fortunes at the Box Office.

Vijay has the highest number of fans in Kerala fans amongst non-Malayalam lead actors and all his action entertainers ensure a bumper opening in God's own country.

Except for Puli, eleven of the previous 12 Ilayathalapathy releases were clean successes at the Box Office.