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Ajith Kumar (born May 1, 1971) is an Indian film actor who has appeared in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi movies. Starting his career as a mechanic, Ajith made his acting debut in his only Telugu-language film-to-date, Prema Pustagam in 1992, which was followed by Amaravathi in the following year, his first lead role. After acting in a series of smaller budget films, Ajith was later recognized for his performance an anonymous lover in the award-winning movie Kadhal Kottai. He went on to demonstrate his versatility as an actor by portraying a variety of unique characters.

Ajith received his first Filmfare Best Actor Award for his performance in Vaali in 1999, portraying a double-role. He went on to win two consecutive Filmfare Best Actor Awards — in the 2001 film Citizen, in which he appeared in nine different appearances, and in the 2002 film, Villaim, playing twins, one of which had a disability. He was later recognized for his triple role in Varalaru, his biggest grosser to date and for his more sensitive character portrayal in Kireedam. Ajith thus established himself as a leading actor of contemporary Tamil cinema.

In addition to being an actor, Ajith is a race driver, having driven in Formula Three for a season and an active ambassador for the Green Revolution. He is known in the Indian media for publicly speaking his mind and openly expressing his opinions, occasionally surrounding himself with controversy.

Biography

Early life and education

Ajith Kumar was born in Hyderabad, India. Ajith is the middle son of three children others being Anil Kumar and Anup Kumar, both being software engineers. Ajith was born to a Sindhi mother and Tamil Iyer father was brought up as a Hindu so followed the principle teachings of Hinduism. 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 known as the Telugu film industry and later into Kollywood.

Early career

Ajith started his film career at the age of 21 as a 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.After Amarkalam with his fiancee Shalini, 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.

Asoka and beyond

In 2001, Ajith played the role of Shahrukh Khan's brother in the historical film Asoka. He began the year with Dheena by A.R. Murugadas. This showed Ajith as a rowdy alongside Suresh Gopi and Laila. Several movies followed: among them the Citizen opposite Vasundhara Das; romantic entertainers like Poovellam Un Vasam and Raja opposite Jyothika and the action tale Red.

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.By then the Kollywood trade had unanimously begun calling him the King of Opening.

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.

Varalaru and the future

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.

In November 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 in turn 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 and Rose Dawn paired with Ajith for the first time. After Billa, Ajith is set to act in Akbar directed by Raju Sundaram. Ajith is set to start filming for the film from January 2008, possibly for a June 2008 release.

Personal life

Family

In early 1999, he began dating his Amarkalam co-star Shalini. Ajith's involvement with Shalini also made him a regular subject of tabloid gossip then, a role to which he was unaccustomed. They got married in 2000 in Chennai where they invited many other Kollywood actors and actresses including Rajnikanth, Kamal Hasan, Vijay, Surya and R. Madhavan. 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. After their marriage in the year 2000, Shalini retired as an actress and became a full time homewife. However she did accompany Ajith at the sets of his films as moral support. In 2007, the couple announced that they was set to have a baby.

Relationships

Since the start of his career in Tollywood and Kollywood, Ajith was well known for being outspoken and genuine about his life and projects. He was also outspoken about his affair with a particular actress. In 1997 Ajith was romantically linked to fellow actress Heera. Both first met in sets and so acted three films together before becoming romantically linked. Ajith and Heera split up in 1999 due to unknown causes. That same year Ajith met his future wife Shalini on the sets of Amarkalam in 1999. They only waited one year before they got married.

Car racing and other interests

Professional car racer

Ajith is a professional car racer who drove in circuits around India in places such as Mumbai, Chennai and Delhi. He had also been abroad in his various races including Germany and Malaysia. He drove in the Formula 3 for the team Mango Racing. Ajith has taken part in many races and notably has driven into third place in two occasions on tour. Sadly due to persistent injuries he could not continue with his car racing career and so returned to acting in Kollywood.

Ambassador For The Green Revolution

Ajith is an ambassador for the Green Revolution, an awareness campaign and effort to clean up the Chennai environment. He uses his films for subtle marketing of his ideas, and planted 101 saplings in his locality in Adyar, Chennai in 2005. This was make an awareness for the environment and to increase oxygen levels in Channai, due to the pollution caused by everyday motorists. This action was welcomed by the public. Since then the Green Revolution themselves have went on to plant many saplings in other parts of Tamil Nadu.

Mohini-Mani Foundation

Ajith created this non-profit organisation named after his parents in order to promote self-hygiene and civic consciousness, and helping to ease the problems of urban sprawl. The Mohini-Mani Foundation became important to Ajith from 2003 onwards and he now continues to fund the non-profit organisation to make sure to keeps helping to ease the problems of urban sprawl.

Awards

Ajith over the years in the has won multiple awards for his acting. He won the Best New Face Award from Bharatmuni Art Academy for his debut film Prema Pustagam in Telugu. After this award he won three more , a Filmfare Award, a Cinema Express Award and a Dinakaran Cinema Award for the film Vaali in 1999. He then won another Cinema Express - Best Artist Award for the film Mugavari in 2000.

In 2001 he won the Special Actor - State Award for the film Poovellam Un Vasam. He then won another Filmfare Award and another Dinakaran Cinema Award for the film Villain in 2002. Ajith Kumar has also won the Filmfare Best Actor Award South on two occasions and Filmfare Best Supporting Actor Award (Tamil) for the Movie Kandukondain Kandukondain. On one occasion J.Jayalalitha presented him with a State Award. In 2007 he won his 4th Filmfare Best Actor Award South for the film Varalaru. He got also the MGR Award by TamilNadu Government and Film Fans Association Best Actor Award.

Filmography

References

1. Best New Face: Ajith Kumar
2. Ajith Kumar in Tamil
3. Ajith in Pavitra
4. Ajith in Pavitra
5. Aasai turns into a blockbuster
6. Amitabh produces Ullasam
7. Stars get together for Ullasam
8. Suryah's Vaali with Ajith and Simran
9. Ajith and Simran join hands again
10. Amarkalam sets a new trend
11. KK all set and ready to go
12. Mugavari for Ajith
13. Red the colour for Ajith
14. Best Actor
15. Awards Galore for Ajith
16. Attagasam hits, while Jana flops for Ajith
17. Ajith and Trisha join hands for Ji
18. Parasivan sets the road out for revival
19. Good Showing
20. Ajitn injured in sets of Kireedam
21. Ajith to remake Billa.
22. Ajith says bye to Heera
23. plant saplings Ajtih Plants Saplings
24. Ajith's Chariable Side

External links

• Ajith Kumar at IMDb

• Indian actors
• Telugu people
• Tamil actors
• Living people
• British Formula Three Championship drivers