Vijay Sethupathi & Bagavathi Perumal Movies Together List — 8 Films

The shape of the work

The 2010s account for 75% of everything they made together. The 2010s belonged to 96; the 2020s to Gandhi Talks. Vijay Sethupathi acted in every film; Bagavathi Perumal acted in all of them. Strictly Tamil cinema — they never crossed industries together.

Partnership facts

• Bagavathi Perumal was a theatre actor with zero film experience when Vijay Sethupathi personally recommended him for Naduvula Konjam Pakkatha Kaanom (2012). Sethupathi had seen him on stage and told director Balaji Tharaneetharan: 'He’s the guy. Trust me.' That one call launched Perumal’s film career.
• In Jigarthanda (2014), Sethupathi played a ruthless gangster and Perumal played his sidekick. But on set, Perumal kept improvising lines in Madurai slang that made Sethupathi break character and laugh. Director Karthik Subbaraj kept those takes because the laughter felt real — it became the film’s comic relief.
• They never rehearsed together before a single scene. Their ritual was to meet 10 minutes before 'action' and just talk about random stuff — food, politics, anything but the script. Sethupathi once said that kept their scenes fresh because neither knew exactly what the other would do.
• Their pairing in Super Deluxe (2019) directly inspired the casting of Sethupathi and Perumal as a father-son duo in the 2022 film Vikram Vedha remake. The director said he wanted that exact 'unspoken understanding' they had in the temple scene of Super Deluxe.
• Bagavathi Perumal said in 2019: 'Vijay Sethupathi is the reason I exist in cinema. He didn't just give me a break — he stood behind me when producers said I looked too raw. Every film we did together, he made sure I had a moment that mattered.'
• In 96 (2018), Sethupathi played a quiet, grieving man and Perumal played his loud, comic friend. The trick: Perumal deliberately spoke faster than Sethupathi in every scene. That speed contrast made Sethupathi’s silences hit harder. Perumal later said he learned that pacing trick from watching Sethupathi work.