Vijay Sethupathi is an Indian actor who works mainly in Tamil films. He has also worked in a few Hindi, Malayalam, Telugu and Kannada films. He began his career in 1996 by playing small uncredited roles in films, before his first lead role in Thenmerku Paruvakaatru (2010), under Seenu Ramasamy's direction. 2012 marked a turning point in Sethupathi's career; all his three releases were critical and commercial successes, resulting in a rise in his popularity.
Sethupathi was first seen in a negative role in Sundarapandian which featured M. Sasikumar in the lead role, and then played the lead roles in the directorial debuts of Karthik Subbaraj and Balaji Tharaneetharan, the thriller film Pizza (2012) and the comedy entertainer Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom (2012), respectively.