Not many people realise this. Vijayakanth had a much larger market penetration and success ratio than any other contemporaries of his time, including Rajinikanth. He has had no less than 3 films released every year with a peak of 15 films in a year. He has worked for small producers and helped them increase the returns multiple folds only on his brand image. Even an actor like Vijay and Vadivelu needed to shadow Vijayakanth to become recognisable faces later on.

Why the comparison with Rajinikanth? His marketing strategy is to make less but calculated number of movies, and use short supply strategy to present a larger image. But, when looked at pure footfalls and the number of times people were willing to invest in a star, MGR and Vijayakanth far exceed everyone else.

In fact, it is this popularity that he leveraged to get a political win, which for various reasons eventually derailed. This makes him the last of those who converted their stardom to political success. Given the changed consumer behaviour and public awareness, we probably will never see another actor making a similar successful leverage.

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