Do we like them?Do we like Vijay Sethupathi?
Our score: 6 out of 10. Nothing harmful in his own words turned up and there's a real donation, but a pending defamation trial and a thin record keep this in the middle.
Vijay Sethupathi is a Tamil-language actor who also hosts Bigg Boss Tamil, the big reality show. Fair warning on this one: the pages we could open were light on his early years and career arc, so we won't pretend to tell that story. What we can tell is the recent stuff and the court trail.
The newest stoush started in September 2026. While questioning a contestant about her time as house leader, he talked about leadership and standing by your decisions when problems come up. Some TVK supporters read that as a veiled jab at Chief Minister Vijay, though The Week says he didn't name anyone.
A TVK MLA demanded “an unconditional apology” and warned of blockades wherever he goes. It was the broadcaster, not Sethupathi, that issued an apology to the Chief Minister, and the report shows no response from him. Where you land depends on whether you hear a pointed dig or a general chat about leadership.
The older legal mess comes from a November 2021 spat at Bengaluru airport with fellow actor Maha Gandhi. Gandhi alleged Sethupathi and his manager attacked him and also brought a criminal defamation case over remarks in an interview. The Madras High Court reportedly left only the defamation charge standing, mediation in 2023 went nowhere, and in January 2024 the Supreme Court dismissed his plea, so he faces trial in Chennai. Nothing has been proven against him.
In July 2025 an X account posted claims about casting couch favours against him, then deleted them within hours and was deactivated. Sethupathi denied it flatly, called it a whispering campaign and filed a cybercrime complaint. The report notes the claims were not corroborated, and no formal complaint against him was reported.
On the harm test, we found no words or acts of his own aimed at LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet in what we could open. That's absence of evidence in a thin file, not a clean bill from a deep read. Search results also showed a casting debate over a straight man playing a trans woman in Super Deluxe, which is about a role, not anything he said.