Uriyadi (Tamil: உறியடி) (transl. Breaking point) is a 2016 Indian Tamil-language political action thriller film written, directed and produced by newcomer Vijay Kumar under the production banner Souvenir Productions with Nalan Kumarasamy, Sameer Bharat Ram and Satish Swaminathan presented and co-produced the film. The film stars Vijay Kumar, Mime Gopi, Citizen Sivakumar, Chandru Kumar, Henna Bella, Jeyakanth Velu and Suruli. Set in the 1990s, it revolves around four bachelors, whose carefree lives take a turn when they are embroiled in a political fight, but they end up finding their mutual interconnections.

Vijay Kumar wrote the script when he moved to the United States in early 2011, originally titled as Vidiyum Varai Vinmeengalaavom, however, the scripting process was delayed for more than a year, due to Kumar's decision of creating a storyboard to make production easier. After a brief work on scripting, casting and pre-production, the film began principal photography in July 2013 and ended that October. Most of the film's portions were shot in and around Chennai. It was followed by a lengthy post-production phase and censorship. Paul Livingstone, handled the cinematography for the film, while editing was by Abhinav Sunder Nayak. Besides acting and directing, Kumar also composed the film score and also worked as the sound engineer, the film features a soundtrack album composed by Masala Coffee, Anthony Daasan and Vishal Chandrashekhar.

Uriyadi was released theatrically on 27 May 2016, to highly positive critical reviews praising the screenwriting, direction, performances, action sequences and other major technical aspects of the film. Critics further praised Vijay Kumar for his realistic filmmaking and for being devoid of clichéd elements present in mainstream Tamil films. It was also lauded as one of the best political thrillers in Tamil cinema. The film received a breakthrough for Vijay Kumar who received several accolades for his work in the film. A spiritual sequel titled Uriyadi 2 was released on 5 April 2019.

1995: Lenin Vijay, Suresh, Akhil and Karthi, were four carefree and adventurous friends who are final year students at an engineering college on the outskirts of Trichy. The film opens by showcasing the daily lives of the four student friends. The students soon meet the politician, Kumar, who is eager to begin his own caste-based political party. He also runs a roadside dhaba frequently visited by the students.

In many subsequent events, the students get into trouble with the local residents. In one such instance in the dhaba, Kumar comes to their rescue, and hence, they get in touch with each other. Later that night, however, one of the students is attacked by some of the local residents. This infuriates some other students, who then chase the locals, and a fight ensues.

Meanwhile, Lenin's ex-girlfriend Agnes is harassed by Ramanathan, a part-time engineering student. This is witnessed by Karthi, who confronts and physically assaults Ramanathan and then narrates these events to Lenin. Later, to their surprise, Ramanathan's friends wait in the dhaba to ambush Karthi. Ramanathan, who has little luck with love, yearns for one college student who seems to be the ex-girlfriend of Lenin. One night, the four friends get very drunk and accidentally annoy some of the caste fanatics. Kumar, along with his uncle, happens to see this and contemplates how to take advantage of this tense situation.

While all this is happening, Kumar drafts plans to initiate a caste-based political party about which he has been dreaming. The plot ends when all three sets of characters meet, and each of them discovers their mutual interconnections.

Vijay Kumar, a software engineer-turned-filmmaker, worked on two short films which were screened at the reality show Naalaya Iyakkunar in 2009. But, he discontinued the progress of the films for personal reasons. When he moved to the United States the following year, Kumar began working on the script of his maiden feature film which served the title Vidiyum Varai Vinmeengalaavom (transl. We will be stars until dawn). The scripting and writing process took more than a year, with Kumar sketching more than 2500 shots for its storyboard. As a debutante, he wanted to ensure that everything goes per plan once the film goes on floors and hence created story boards to make production easier, it eventually took him more than four months to complete the process and he wanted to include minute details in the process. After completing the final draft in its entirety, he moved to India and started his production house Souvenir Productions in April 2013.