Vijay Armstrong

Vijay Armstrong is an Indian Cinematographer. He has primarily worked in the Tamil Film Industry. He was born in Gingee, Chennai, to father S. Vijayaragavan, and mother V. Rani. He completed his schooling from Alampoondi Government Higher Secondary School, Gingee. After that, he enrolled for a program in law, but he shifted his career inclining towards his creative side. He pursued a diploma in multimedia. He started his journey as a learner of photojournalism for the Vikatan Group. Later, he secured a job as a graphic and web designer for Digit Net Communications, Bangalore. He showed interest in becoming a cinematographer, and hence, he decided to work as a camera assistant for some reputed projects like Bommalattam, Autograph, Yaaradi Nee Mohini, and Vralaru.

Simultaneously, he worked independently as a cinematographer and landed himself ad-films for various brands like Murugan Idly, S.M. Skills, Jayachandiran Textiles, Nallur Kumaran Silks, Canada, Shri Lakshmi Jewellery, Thiruchi, Sumangali Jewellery, Kovai, Chennai Silks, and TCDS Computer Education as the central cameraman or as an associate cameraman. He received various assignments after this. He worked for more than 15 documentaries including the BBC documentary based on P.T Usha, an Indian athlete, and one for the ILO. Apart from this, he has worked in a music video for the album, “Timeless Classics”- A Malayalam album directed by Mr. Jayaram. Some other documentaries and short-films that he has been a part of include “Chedium Serumium” a Tamil Short film directed by Editor B. Lenin, “ Endless Love”, an English/Hindi short-film directed by Janagi Vishwnatahan, “DOTS- the cure for sure” an English Docu-Drama directed by Janagi Vishwanathan.

He received his first big break as a cinematographer in 2009, from Ragesh Lingam’s Pugaippdam (2010). Later, he worked on Raja Guru’s Ondipuli and Gopi’s Karuppar Nagaram which featured Akhil. These two movies did not have a theatre release. Some of the films he worked on included, Maathi Yosi (2010) a Tamil feature film directed by Nantha Priyasamy, Thottal Thodarum (2015) a romantic film written by notable writer Cable Sankar, Azhagu Kutti Chellam (2016) a film written and directed by Charles, Buddhan Yesu Gandhi (2016) a Tamil drama film starring Kishore, Madhumita, and Ashok. Apart from movies, he has also been a part of the web series Nila Nila Odi Va (2018). He is known for this project as he has used practical lights instead of the conventional set lights for the shooting of this particular web series. He has learned the art of cinema from the prominent names in the Tamil industry including B. Kannan, B. Lenin, C.J. Rajkumar, Dwarkanath, and Siddharth. He is married to N. Hemalatha.