Vinayakan won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Actor in the year 2016 for his leading role of Ganga in Rajiv Ravi's Kammatipaadam.

He achieved wider attention by playing the antagonist Varman in Nelson Dilipkumar's Tamil-language action film Jailer (2023) starring Rajinikanth.

[10] On July 2023, Vinayakan publicly shamed late Chief Minister of Kerala Oommen Chandy through Facebook live.

MLA of Thrikkakara, Uma Thomas, publicly criticized the quick release, suggesting it was related to Vinayakan's political associations [16][17] On 7 September 2024, Vinayakan was taken into custody by Rajiv Gandhi International Airport Police in Hyderabad following an altercation with Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) gate staff.

[15] Security officials affirmed he arrived in Hyderabad in a visibly drunken state on an Indigo flight from Kochi and was to travel to Goa, before his arrest.