Frances Antony Cyril Raja (born 24 July 1975) known professionally as Vijay Antony, is an Indian music composer, playback singer, actor, film editor, lyricist, audio engineer, and filmmaker working predominantly in Tamil cinema. He made his debut as music composer in 2005 with Sukran. He made his acting debut in 2012 Naan and is known for his roles in action thriller films such as Salim (2014) and Pichaikkaran (2016).

Early life

Vijay Antony was born in Nagercoil, Kanyakumari District. When he entered the media and film industry, he had picked Agni as his stage name, but this was changed to Vijay by director S. A. Chandrasekhar who had commented that Agni was not lucky. Antony was brought up by his mother after his father committed suicide when Antony was 7. He is not a trained musician, but started his career as a sound engineer and later became a music composer. After completing his tertiary education, he established an audio studio called Audio Infotainment and worked there as a sound engineer. In his early days as a music composer, he composed jingles for advertisements, and notable background scores for television shows by conducting research on sound engineering. His music composing venture in movies arrived when Oscar Ravichandran approached Antony to compose music for his film Dishyum, but his music composer debut in movies happened through Sukran, as it was released first.

Career

Composing

Vijay Antony started his composing career with the 2005 film Sukran. He was nominated for his score in the film Naan Avan Illai (2007). Antony's songs for the 2008 film Kadhalil Vizhunthen became hits, especially the dappan koothu number Nakka Mukka. He became the first Indian music director to win a Cannes Golden Lion award, for "Nakka Mukka" (for The Times of India) in the Best of Music category. The song was later played at the 2011 Cricket World Cup. Antony composed the music to a few Tamil soundtracks in 2009, including A Aa E Ee, TN 07 AL 4777, Mariyadhai, Ninaithale Inikkum, and Vettaikaaran. Antony had composed music for many Tamil films of the early 2010s, including Aval Peyar Thamizharasi, Uthama Puthiran, Vedi, and Velayudham. Antony made his Telugu composing debut with Mahatma (2009) and his Kannada composing debut with Buddhivantha (2007). Antony has composed music for most of his own acting films, including Naan (2012), Salim (2014), Pichaikkaran (2016), Saithan (2016), Yaman (2017), Annadurai (2017), Kaali (2018), Thimiru Pudichavan (2019) and Pichaikkaran 2 (2023).

Acting

Vijay Antony's acting debut was in the crime thriller Naan where he played the lead role. The film's standalone sequel titled Salim, an action thriller, was his next project as an actor, for which he also composed music. In 2015, he starred in the romantic comedy India Pakistan, his first acting film for which he was not the music director. In 2016, he chose to star in the action thriller Pichaikkaran (2016), collaborating with his Dishyum director Sasi. It became a commercial success, with overall collections nearing 40 Crore. The Telugu dub Bichagadu was a bigger success than the original. His next was Saithan, an action thriller directed by debutant Pradeep Krishnamoorthy. He appeared in the 2017 political action thriller Yaman directed by Jeeva Shankar, whom he collaborated with for the second time after Naan. The film released to positive reviews. His next film Annadurai in the same year was an action drama which received mixed reviews. In 2018, he starred in Kaali, a period action film directed by Kiruthiga Udhayanidhi and Thimiru Pudichavan, an action film directed by Ganeshaa. In 2019, he starred in Kolaigaran, an action thriller directed by Andrew Louis and co-starring Arjun. The film opened to highly positive reviews. Antony made his directorial debut with Pichaikkaran 2 in 2023. In 2024, Vijay Antony plays the lead role of a romantic hero in Romeo.

Personal life

Antony is married to Fatima Vijay Antony, and they had two daughters, Meera and Lara. Meera, the elder daughter, committed suicide on 19 September 2023 at the age of 16 at their home in Chennai. For his films produced by Vijay Antony Film Corporation, Fatima was credited as the producer except for Romeo (2024), for which Meera was credited as the producer. Antony has a well-known great-grandfather, Samuel Vedanayagam Pillai, who was a Tamil poet, novelist, and social worker and is remembered for his authorship of Prathapa Mudaliar Charithram, recognized as the "first modern Tamil novel." Vedanayagam's ideals of women's liberation and education are reflected in this novel.

Filmography

Actor

Editor

Director

Discography

Music director

Lyricist

Television

Judge