Chiyaan Vikram Birthday Special: How a Dubbing Artist Became One of Indian Cinema’s Finest Stars

Chiyaan Vikram started his journey as a hero in the Tamil film industry with his debut movie, 'En Kadhal Kanmani'. While many actors achieve success, Vikram's path was filled with unique challenges and triumphs.

After his debut, Vikram acted in director S.P. Muthuraman's 'Kaaval Geetham' and cinematographer P.C. Sreeram's 'Meera'. Despite working with big names, success didn't come easy. He was labelled a 'failure hero' and took up supporting and negative roles in Malayalam and Telugu films to keep going.

Vikram kept his faith and continued to act in Tamil films like 'Pudhiya Mannargal', 'Housefull', and 'Ullasam'. People appreciated his acting, but these films didn't make him a star. After struggling for 10 long years through the 1990s, director Bala's 'Sethu', released in December 1999, became the turning point of his career.

Not just for Vikram, 'Sethu' was also the directorial debut for Bala. The film's success brought Vikram's amazing acting to the masses. But many don't know that during the 90s, Vikram also worked as a dubbing artist. In fact, he was the voice for actor Ajith in his debut film, 'Amaravathi'.

It wasn't just Ajith. Vikram also lent his voice to Prabhu Deva in 'Kadhalan', Abbas in 'Kadhal Desam', and Vineeth in 'Pudhiya Yugam'. He even dubbed for Ben Kingsley, who played Gandhi in the Tamil version of Richard Attenborough's Oscar-winning film 'Gandhi'. As Vikram turns 60 today, social media is flooded with birthday wishes for the star.