Childhood & Education
Ajith Kumar , aka Thala was born in Hyderabad, India born May 1, 1971. Ajith is the middle son of three children others being Anil Kumar and Anup Kumar, both being software engineers. Ajith Kumar, the second child born in Hyderabad, India, to a Palakkad Iyer father and a Sindhi mother from Kolkata and grew up in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. In his childhood he was brought up in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Schooling days were numbered for Ajith as he dropped out of Asan Memorial Sr. Secondary School in 1986 to become a part-time two-four wheeler mechanic and a full-time garment exporter based in Erode till 1990. Business agencies pushed him into modelling for adverts in print media. He also took it on realising an income in the job, it eventually paved his way into Tollywood otherwise nown as the Telugu film industry and later into Kollywood.
Early Days in Career
Ajith started his film career at the age of 21 as an actor Telugu movie Prema Pustagam in 1992.. His next film was in Tamil entitled Amaravathi for which he was paid a token salary of Rs.390. His second Tamil film Pavithra was delayed for 17 months because of a racing injury that left him bed-ridden. Both films received appreciation from the Tamil audience. It was his third Tamil film that released 10 months later in 1995, Aasai, directed by Vasanthan and produced by Mani Rathnam which helped to establish his career as a teen icon in Kollywood. Ajith’s first big budget venture Aasai but only after Agathiyan’s Vaanmathi and particularly the National Award winning Kadhal Kottai established him as an accomplished actor in Kollywood. Ajith later played in Amitabh Bachchan’s debut Tamil production in Ullasam. This venture paid him a salary of over Rs.1 million for the first time ever.
A string of successful movies followed, most notably Kadhal Mannan and Aval Varuvala and the multiple award winning Vaali which cast him alongside Simran. Vaali saw a new peak in Ajith’s career. He played a dual role in the film as a deaf-and-dumb twin who lusts after his naive brother’s wife.
Marriage & Business Ventures
During the shooting of Amarkalam directed by his freind SARAN , Ajit fell in love with the co actress Shalini,. Shalini is an actress from her childhood days who had almost 97 movies to her kitty. They got married in 2000 in Chennai. As both were of different religions Ajith being a Hindu and Shalini being a Christian, together they were married in the customs of both religions. Ajith – Shalini love and marriage was one of the most talked about news over the period and the star couple are still known for their love and affection for each other.
Post marriage , Ajith set up his own distribution company AK International with office located within the premises of NIC Arts which was run by his friend-producer-distributor S.S.Chakravarthi. This office was shifted in 2006.In 2000, Ajith was cast alongside Mammooty, Abbas, Tabu and Aishwarya Rai in Kandukondain Kandukondain. The film’s audio rights were sold for a record Rs.22 million, which still stands. Mugavari followed as Ajith acted in alongside Jyothika. In 2001, Ajith played the role of Shahrukh Khan’s brother in the historical film Asoka.
The Making of THALA
In 2001, Ajith played a movie called Dheena, directed by debutant director A R Murugadoss,. Dheena was the first ever Action flick he tried and acted alonside with Veteran Actor Suresh Gopi & Actress Laila. This movie had song called “ Vatikuchi pathi kadthu da” during a costar shall say “ THALA Erukkum pothu Vaal ada Kudathu, Nee Adu Thala” .(menaing a co- artist shall not pretend in the presence of a prominent star). This song was extremely popular and since the word Thala( Meaning leader/ the group lead) was catchy and from then on the fans started calling him , THE THALA. This word become so popular that even print and television medias started referring him as THALA and this name has been a house hold referring only AJIT KUMAR. Then Thala acted a lot of action movies like Magnum Opus movie CITIZEN, RED. During this period he was also concentrating in romantic entertainers like Poovellam un VASAM & RAJA.
The King of Opening
He won the South India Filmfare Best Actor Award for Villain, directed by K. S. Ravikumar.Villain, in which he once again donned a dual role, grossed almost Rs.300 million at the box office marking a new office box peak in Ajith’s career. The amount of collections received in the first week of the release for any Ajit started increasing from then . Almost 75% of the revenue expected out of the movie was getting collected in the first ten days itself leaving just 25% Depending on the content of the movie. Inspite of his ups and downs in his career , Ajiths movies were greatly expected by his fans and received a huge collections from the By then the Kollywood trade had unanimously begun calling him the King of Opening and placed him only next to Super star Rajini Kanth in terms of box office collections.
The fall
In 2003 and 2004, Ajith acted in Anjaneya, Jana and Attagasam opposite Meera Jasmine, Sneha and Pooja respectively. Anjaneya created a new record for Telugu rights reported at almost Rs.9 million offered by Dr. Rajasekar while Ajith’s salary reached a peak of almost Rs.50 million for the film but he waived it when the film did not match expectations. Jana too did not perform as expected and Ajith suffered some high profile fracas with its producer. So, he declared an end to motor racing and Attagasam, in which he donned a dual role again, was successful. Attagasam rejained Ajith’s status at the box office after Jana had not done so well, however there were many claims that Ajith did not look like his old self anymore.
In 2005, Ajith acted in the film Ji opposite Trisha. Project delays by director Bala and producer Chakravarthi forced him to sit idle for the rest of the year. He thus released only 4 films in the three years from 2003 through 2005.The film did not do well as expected beforehand as the producers had failed to release the film when it was first made. Ajith had reach an all time low in his career and was desperately in need of a hit in early 2006.
The Pheonix rises again
By contrast, in 2006, Ajith acted 3 projects, Paramasivan directed P.Vasu, Thirupathi directed by Perarasu and particularly Varalaru directed by K. S. Ravikumar. This is his comeback movie since Villain. Varalaru emerged as a successful film. In Paramasivan Ajith looked back to his best fatigue again and played a prisoner in jail and a secret agent. Paramasivan gave Ajith the much needed lift to be amongst the bigger heroes of Kollywood. Now he was desperate to continue his form with Thirupathi. Thirupathi saw a brand new Ajith, he played a role the would have normally been played by his peer Vijay. He answered his critics with the movie where he improved his dancing and pronunciation of speech. Thirupathi did well but more importantly got a better actor out of Ajith. Ajith’s final film of the year Varalaru was his biggest hit of his career. He donned a triple role playing a father and two sons. The role got him a Filmfare award for best actor 2007.
Ajith’s first film in 2007 was with the newcomer director Chella entitled Aalwar. Both Varalaru and Aalwar were opposite Asin. Aalwar did not live up the expectations created by the success of Varalaru, as a result it was another major let down for Ajith. After Aalwar, Ajith acted ina remake of a 1989 National Award winning Mohanlal classic, entitled Kireedam opposite Trisha Krishnan. The film was produced by Anil Ambani’s conglomerate Adlabs Films and will mark their entry into Kollywood. Ajith sustained a recurring spinal injury on the sets of the film.Kireedam went on to become a good hit for Ajith and won him many praise and fans for acting in such an emotional and different film. Kireedom also marked a successful entry for ADLABS, a reliance corporate company in Kollywood and lookign at Ajits sincerity , commitment and dedication, Ajith became the first choice of Big corporates in the Cine Industry.
Raise of a New Super Star in tamil cinema
On December 14 2007, Ajith is set to release Billa. The film is a remake of Rajinikanth’s 1980 Tamil film Billa which itself was a remake of Amitabh Bachan’s 1978 Hindi film Don which was remade by Shah Rukh Khan in 2006 as Don again. The film is directed by Vishnuvardhan and the expectations are high on this film with Nayanthara,Namitha paired with Ajith for the first time. Billa is expected to be the biggest ever opening , the king of opening ever had. In each & Every city & towns in Tamilnadu , Theatres apart every three kilometers are screening Billa. The Buzz is that Billa shall do a business worth of 100 crores and stands only next to Rajini Kanth’s “Sivaji”. After Billa, Ajith acted in Aegan directed by Raju Sundaram.
Ajith upcoming film is “Asal” which is produced by Sivaji Productions and directed by Saran. It is expected to be released on 2010 Pongal.
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