Vijay Sethupathi at 48: Five Performances That Reveal His Extraordinary Range

Vijay Sethupathi’s stardom was never an overnight success story. His journey began humbly, balancing odd jobs and theatre before setting foot onto the big screen. Today he stands among the most respected actors in Indian cinema with a body of work that spans commercial hits and deeply textured independent films. His commitment to complex character work earned him national recognition, including the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance in Super Deluxe (2019) and multiple critics’ honours across genres. 

On his 48th birthday, here’s revisiting these five performances that map Sethupathi’s range across intimacy, fear, memory and menace, showing how his control over the craft has quietly altered expectations of acting in Tamil cinema

Seethakaathi follows the afterlife of an artist, tracing how the legacy of a celebrated stage performer is interpreted and romanticised once he is gone. Sethupathi plays Ayya Aadhimoolam, an ageing theatre actor whose death arrives early in the film, yet whose spirit haunts the entirety of its emotional and intellectual fabric. Sethupathi approaches the role with reflective calm. Ayya is written as a man aware of his contradictions, his ego, his failures and his devotion to art. 

Super Deluxe interweaves multiple moral fables across Chennai, each confronting desire, faith, shame and social judgment. Sethupathi embodies Shilpa, a transgender woman who returns home after transitioning and is forced to confront a family struggling with her presence. Sethupathi’s Shilpa is lived-in with careful attentiveness to gesture, speech and vulnerability. This film matters because it grants interior life to a character often reduced to symbolism in cinema. 

In 96, Sethupathi plays Ram, a travel photographer shaped by an unresolved first love. Sethupathi’s strength here lies in restraint, as he communicates longing through pauses, softened speech and attentive silences. Ram feels real because his performance honours emotional residue and the messiness of a closure never achieved, making intimacy its central language. Many have compared this film to Celine Song’s Past Lives (2023) and for the right reasons.

Pizza follows a pizza delivery worker whose routine night spirals into paranoia, deception and apparent supernatural terror. Sethupathi plays Michael Karthikeyan, a young man navigating both a strained relationship and a city that suddenly feels dangerous. The role marked an early assertion of his screen presence. Michael is written as impulsive, flawed and scared; and Sethupathi embraces those textures. 

Master stages a conflict between a reformist teacher and a criminal syndicate controlling juvenile institutions. Sethupathi plays Bhavani, a gangster whose authority grows from personal trauma and institutional corruption. Bhavani listens carefully, speaks sparingly and acts decisively. Sethupathi gives the antagonist moral texture—suggesting how power is built from wounded memory and calculated survival. Even within such a commercial framing, his presence remains unsettlingly grounded and gritty.