Vijayan was an Indian actor, primarily concentrated in Malayalam and Tamil language films. A well-respected character actor in the 1970s and 80s, he was perhaps best known for his portrayal of Sundaravadivelu in J. Mahendran's Uthiripookkal (1979), which was called one of the 100 greatest Indian films of all time by News18 in 2013. He also played a minor role in Mani Ratnam's Nayakan (1987), which is widely considered to be a crown jewel work of Tamil cinema and was listed in TIME's "All-Time 100 Movies".
