 He made his debut in the 1990 film En Kadhal Kanmani , which was followed by a series of small @-@ budget Tamil , Malayalam and Telugu films in the 1990s , many of which went unnoticed . However the success of Bala 's tragedy film Sethu ( 1999 ) , in which Vikram appeared as a rogue turned lover , started Vikram 's successful career as an actor . In the early 2000s , Vikram appeared in a series of masala films , with Dhill ( 2001 ) , Gemini ( 2002 ) , Dhool ( 2003 ) and <unk> ( 2003 ) becoming commercially successful ventures . During the period , Vikram also appeared in diverse roles and received critical acclaim for his performance as a blind villager in Kasi and a Robin Hood @-@ esque figure in Samurai . In 2003 , Vikram 's performance as a gravedigger with autism spectrum disorders in Bala 's Pithamagan saw him win the National Film Award for Best Actor , with his character only speaking a couple of lines of dialogue in the entire film . His appearance as an idealistic lawyer with multiple personality disorder in Shankar 's blockbuster Anniyan ( 2005 ) also won critical acclaim , as did his appearance as a superhero in Kanthaswamy ( 2009 ) . Vikram 's portrayal of Veeraiya , a tribal leader inspired by the Ramayana character Ravana , in Mani Ratnam 's Raavanan saw him secure further accolades , as did his appearance as a mentally challenged adult with the maturity of a six @-@ year @-@ old boy in Deiva Thirumagal ( 2011 ) . He consequently appeared in multiple get @-@ ups as a bodybuilder and a crippled hunchback , losing up to 35 kilograms for sequences , during the making of Shankar 's romantic thriller I ( 2015 ) and won rave reviews from critics for his performance . It is currently the third highest @-@ grossing Tamil film of all time . 
