vinod raj was born into a kannada speaking christian family, was born as john albert victor and was a native of paramakudi, before running away from home to start a career in films. he was married to rajeshwari, a sub-collector whose brother, thyagarajan was an established director-actor in the tamil film industry; with his son, actor prashanth, being his nephew. vinod's son kennedy, who works with the stage name of vikram, went from being a struggling actor to one of the leading actors in tamil cinema after the release of "sethu" (1999). vikram is used as a screen name as he disliked his original name, kennedy; the name vikram was composed by taking "vi" from his father's name, "k" from kennedy, "ra" from his mother's name and "ram" from his sun sign, aries. vikram's son, dhruv, is also an actor, marking the third generation of actors in the family. vinod's younger son, arvind lives in dubai, u.a.e. he was previously set to make his film debut as a villain in the 2008 film "saroja" but eventually did not feature. he is now making a serious attempt at acting in films and is in the process of signing up with several well known directors as well as producers from tamil & malayalam film industries. vinod also has a daughter anitha, who is a teacher.