Vijayakanth & Jai Ganesh Movies Together List — 5 Films

The shape of the work

The 1980s account for 80% of everything they made together. The 1980s belonged to Nalla Naal; the 1990s to Kannupada Poguthaiya. Vijayakanth acted in every film; Jai Ganesh acted in all of them. Strictly Tamil cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Director S. A. Chandrasekhar paired them for the first time in Nalla Naal (1984) because he needed a fresh combo — Vijayakanth was still finding his footing as a lead, and Jai Ganesh was the seasoned character actor who could anchor the emotional scenes. Chandrasekhar later said he picked Jai Ganesh specifically to give Vijayakanth a stronger scene partner.
• In Dharma Devathai (1986), the film that bombed so hard it got a 1/10 on some sites, Vijayakanth and Jai Ganesh actually saved each other's performances. Jai Ganesh would deliberately flub his lines during rehearsals to make Vijayakanth laugh and loosen up before intense takes. Vijayakanth later admitted that trick got him through the melodrama.
• During the shoot of Thazhuvatha Kaigal (1986), Jai Ganesh noticed Vijayakanth was struggling with a romantic scene. He pulled him aside and told him to imagine the heroine was his own wife. That advice became Vijayakanth's go-to method for love scenes for the rest of his career.
• Their fourth and final film together, Velundu Vinaiyillai (1987), was the first Tamil film to feature a then-unknown composer named Ilaiyaraaja's assistant — a young A. R. Rahman, who played keyboards on the soundtrack. Rahman later said watching Vijayakanth and Jai Ganesh's on-screen brotherhood taught him how to write music for male bonding scenes.
• Jai Ganesh once told a magazine: 'Vijayakanth was like a younger brother who never listened to advice — but he always listened to mine. That's why we worked.' He said this in a 1990 interview with Kumudam.