Viji

Viji was an Indian actress, who appeared in Tamil and Malayalam. She made her debut in Kozhi Koovuthu and acted in over 40 films.

Born in 1966, Viji made her acting debut at the age of 16 in the 1982 Tamil romantic musical drama Kozhi Koovuthu. Also starring Prabhu, Suresh and Silk Smitha, the film was a huge success and ran for over 300 days in the theatres. She became a star after her first film itself, and worked with superstars Rajinikanth and Vijayakanth in Tamil cinema, and Mohanlal and Mammootty in the Malayalam cinema over the next few years.

During shooting for a song sequence in the Vijay-starrer Poove Unakkaga, Viji experienced hip and back pain and she underwent an operation on her spinal cord in 1996 at the Chennai Apollo Hospitals. The operation failed and doctors found an acute infection in the wound caused by the surgery. After more surgeries, Viji suffered temporary paralysis. She filed a lawsuit on Apollo Hospitals which returned Rs 30,000. Viji recovered after a corrective surgery and made a comeback to films in 2000 with Simmasanam. Vijayakanth, who had acted with Viji in many films, gave her an opportunity to star in the film and had promised to give her a role in his next film Vaanchinathan also, but Simmasanam ultimately remained her last film.

On 27 November 2000, Viji committed suicide in her home in Chennai. Her suicide note blamed a failed love affair with director A R Ramesh, who was already married. The Hindu reported that the prosecution case was that Ramesh promised to marry her but declined later and that three days prior to her death, Ramesh met Viji at a function and abused her. Ramesh, his wife, A R Sumathi, and his friend Chinnasamy were charged with "abetting the suicide" of Viji and prosecuted by the Mahila Court and acquitted.