Captain Vijayakanth no more: Kamal Haasan, Jr NTR, Trisha and others mourn his passing

Actor-turned-politician Captain Vijayakanth is no more. The 71-year-old, who was famous for his cop roles, was admitted to the hospital for a routine checkup

Actor-turned-politician Captain Vijayakanth is no more. The 71-year-old, who was famous for his cop roles, was admitted to the hospital for a routine checkup but was found suffering from pneumonia and tested positive for Covid-19.

Despite being put on ventilator support due to difficulty in breathing, he passed away on Thursday. His health had been failing for a while now. As a mark of respect, morning shows in theatres have been cancelled across Tamil Nadu. Stars and fans took to social media to mourn his passing.

Born as Narayanan Vijayaraj Alagarswami in 1952 in Madurai, Vijayakanth is one of the few Tamil actors to have acted only in films of the language throughout his career. Most of his films have often been dubbed into Telugu and Hindi.

He was called a ‘Puratchi Kalaignar’ (revolutionary artist) in the industry. Most of his roles saw him play the righteous do-gooder, with his roles as a police officer being the most famous. It was his 1991 film Captain Prabhakaran that earned him the moniker, Captain.