First Doubted, Then Crowned: Cinema Salutes Vijay's TVK Surge

With TVK pushing past the 100-seat mark in the Tamil Nadu count and Vijay’s three-year-old party emerging as the single largest in the assembly as of mid-afternoon, the congratulations started rolling in from outside Chennai before the Chennai industry itself fully showed up. Tiger Shroff was first off the block from Bombay, posting a few hours into the count as TVK’s lead firmed.

The post crossed 800,000 views inside five hours and set the template for what followed: short, warm, future-tense. Most of the early arrivals weren’t from Kodambakkam at all. Telugu star Nani took the same line in a longer post that pulled the cleanest soundbite of the day. “Congratulations Vijay sir. First doubted and then crowned. Happened at our home and now it’s happening in our neighbouring home. Underdog winning is always absolute cinema, or should I say absolute politics? Hope great things follow for the people of Tamil Nadu who have made their decision clear.”

Telugu actor Sharwanand followed: “Some journeys are meant for more. From cinema to leadership, you’ve earned the trust of millions.” Malayalam actor Aju Varghese kept his short — “The historical example of luck favours the brave!” — over a Vijay poster.

From Tamil cinema’s current top tier, Sivakarthikeyan was the first to weigh in, in a quote carried by BBC News Tamil. He congratulated Vijay “for creating this kind of impact among the people in the very first election you contested,” then made the fraternity angle explicit: “There is an added happiness in this, given that you come from the film industry. Best wishes as you work for the people.” It is the kind of cross-camp gesture that is not automatic — Sivakarthikeyan and Vijay are headline acts in overlapping market windows, and the line about cinema-to-public-service was a deliberate one.

Around him, the Tamil cluster came in mostly from the directors and composers Vijay has worked with. GV Prakash, who scored Theri and Thalaivaa, called it “huge and a historical victory, never before, never after.”

Santhosh Narayanan went broader, framing the result as a generational break in Tamil Nadu’s two-party reflex.

RJ Balaji, whose Karuppu opens in ten days, posted in mixed-script Tamil — “Makkal theerpe Mahesan theerpu” (the people’s verdict is god’s verdict).

Director Ajay Gnanamuthu pulled the most opportunistic angle of the day, asking the Jana Nayagan team to release the unreleased Vijay film with a “Maanbumigu Thamizhaga Mudhalvar Dr. C. Joseph Vijay” title card and turn the Pongal release miss into an election-day celebration.

Varalaxmi Sarathkumar, who shared the screen with Vijay in Sarkar, leaned into the campaign rhetoric directly: “Oru viral puratchi, whistle podu! The people have spoken. So many have tried for decades, but you have proved that if the people want, the power is theirs.”

Vishal pointed the conversation forward instead. Rather than congratulate, he flagged the next obstacle — the role of the Governor in a transition.

That reference is the actual question of the next 48 hours. Tamil Nadu’s Governor R N Ravi has spent his tenure in repeated public friction with the DMK government, and government formation in any state where the constitutional head and the would-be chief minister are not on speaking terms is the fight that decides whether a mandate becomes a swearing-in. Vishal’s note treats the result as a beginning rather than an arrival.

Trisha arrived at Vijay’s Panaiyur house earlier in the afternoon. The count is still live, and more reactions will land as the evening unfolds.