Ajay, we know that Vijay has been the cynosure of all eyes long before the social media or tea shows came into the picture.
Did Thalabathy's daughter praise Vijay?
Aiswarya Rajnikanth i remember in one of her first interviews talked about how she was in awe with Vijay's dancing and casual acting. Sorry, i searched for the link and i don't seem to find it. If someone has it, feel free to post.
Karthi Sivakumar after the humongous success of Paruthi Veeran spoke about his fascination for Vijay and his relentless mass pull in an interview to Kumudham or Ananda Vikatan. I read the print version of it and again i don't find an online source.
Jayam Ravi, after his hatrick success, shared how he admired Vijay and came into the industry wanting to be like him. This is well documented.
Vishal had the habit of watching Vijay's movies first day, first show as any other normal fan would love to.
Jeeva also wanted to emulate Vijay when he wished to try his luck at acting.
Suhashini Maniratnam proudly proclaimed that Vijay was the first actor to break into the Rajni-Kamal stronghold and stake his claim to the top spot
Sathyaraj went one step further and compared Vijay’s movies with the legendary MGR’s. His son Sibiraj is a die-hard Vijay fan.
Director AL Vijay confessed how he used to try Vijay’s dressing and glasses when he was in college.
GV Prakash grew up watching Vijay movies.
So much and so forth.
The only difference is most of these accolades came when social media and tea shows never were a big draw.
Vijay’s stronghold in the social media was questioned and mocked in the beginning and slowly now people have realized his force.
Similarly, there will be time in the near future where tea shows will sing to his tunes too.

