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Meet actress, who became star at 16, worked with Rajinikanth, Mohanlal, Mammootty, died by suicide at 34 after...
South Indian actress Viji, who starred in Tamil and Malayalam films in the 80s and 90s, was found hanging at her Chennai home in 2000 when she was just 34. Her suicide note revealed that she chose to end her life after a married director AR Ramesh cheated on her.
Updated : Jun 10, 2025, 05:44 PM IST | Edited by : Aman Wadhwa
 "Tamil actress Viji died by suicide at 34")
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The shocking suicide of artists such as legendary filmmaker Guru Dutt and the acclaimed performer Sushant Singh Rajput shocked the Indian entertainment industry. Viji, who was one of the famous actress in Tamil and Malayalam cinema in the 1980s and 1990s, also chose to end her life by hanging herself after she was betrayed in love. Her disturbing death left the entire film industry shaken.
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 Malayala cinema over the next few years.
She started etting supporting roles in the 90s, and her career was cut short after she experienced back pain while shooting a song in Vijay-starrer Poove Unakkaga in 1996. She got herself admitted at the Apollo Hospitals in Chennai, where her operation failed and Viji suffered a temporary paralysis. The actress filed a lawsuit against the hospital chain, and got Rs 30,000 as compensation, through which she got a corrective surgery that improved her health.
On November 27, 2000, Viji was found hanging herself at her Chennai home. While many thought that the reason behind her shocking death was her deteriorating health and financial condition, her suicide note revealed that she had chosen to end her life after getting betrayed in love.
While looking out for work in Tamil serials, Viji had met director AR Ramesh and began a serious relationship with him. It was after a few months that she got to know that Ramesh was already married and had cheated on her. The Tamil Nadu police had arrested AR Ramesh and his wife AR Sumathi for abetment of Viji's suicide, but the two were soon acquitted.
