Tamil actor Vikram, recipient of the National Award for Best Actor for his performance in "Pitamagan", is hardly typical of his tribe.

His is an unusual story - a long, slow climb to the top.

Fired by dreams of film stardom while still studying at a boarding school at the hill station of Yercaud, he threw himself into sports and games and learned dancing - skills he thought he would need to be an actor.

The dream persisted through his adolescence and young adulthood in Chennai's Loyola College, while he finished his Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and obtained a MBA.

He got a role in "Meera" (1989) and then the first Tamil production from ABCL, "Ullasam", but it did little for his acting career.

For 10 years, he played minor roles in Malayalam and Telugu films and even worked as a dubbing artiste. He was then offered the role of Chiyaan in "Sethu" by Bala.

The film was unusual for a Tamil movie and his role did not have glamour or "action"; it needed a sensitive portrayal of a disturbed mind instead.

Failing to draw support from financiers, distributors and exhibitors, the film took two years in the making and barely managed a noon-show slot in a suburban theatre when released.

People liked it. Purely on audience support and word-of-mouth publicity, Vikram and the film became roaring successes.

While offers came pouring in, Vikram was content to wait, to pick and choose. Some of his choices alarmed his well wishers, like the role of the blind, wayside singer in another unglamorous film "Kaasi" a remake of a Malayalam film. Inexplicably, "Kaasi" also clicked.

Then followed a series of big films, "Gemini", "Dhil", "Saami". Vikram became accepted as a star. He is even labelled as the next superstar after Rajnikanth.

Bala again approached him to do the role of a gravedigger in his film "Pitamahan".

While it was a meaty role, it again was unglamorous. Vikram was unfazed, and accepted the challenge of getting into the character and doing his damnedest.

The result has been the National Award.

During his days in Malayalam films, Vikram watched the acting of Mammootty and Mohanlal, and the strong roles they got. He attributes his later success to the experience he gained in Malayalam films.

He has proved that given a chance he can turn in as strong a performance as anyone else. By lending a strange glamour to a gravedigger's role, he would seem to have assured himself of a long cinematic life.