Vijay's Meteoric Rise: Comparing Thalapathy's stardom with Rajnikanth, SRK

Mass following led to Vijay's rise as India's highest paid actor, so why is he not seen much in ads?

Between 2000 and 2003, when an up and coming actor named Joseph Vijay first became the brand ambassador for Coca-Cola in Tamil Nadu, for the “Coke Kudi da” (roughly meaning “drink Coke”) campaign, he earned in lakhs for each movie. By 2009, when Coca-Cola wanted Vijay again, he was earning about Rs 8 crore a movie. This time, naturally, Coke had to shell out much more for him.

Fifteen years on, in 2024, Vijay is a bonafide superstar. More specifically, he is the highest paid actor in India and possibly in all of Asia, going by his reported