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Ajith Kumar (born May 1, 1971 in Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India) is a popular Tamil actor and a race car driver. He is affectionately called as Thala by his fans and titled onscreen as Ultimate Star.

Film career

Nineties

Ajith started his film career at the age of 21 in a Telugu movie Prema Pustagam in 1992. The movie proved to be successful and he won the Best New Face Award for it, establishing him as an actor. Two other movies followed in Tamil Amaravathi and Pavithra, which was delayed for seventeen months because of an injury that left him bed-ridden. His salary was about Rs390 then.

Aasai, directed by Vasanth followed in 1995 which proved to be hugely sucessful at the box office. After several more movies, Agathiyan's Vaanmathi and particularly Kadhal Kottai made him a household name and his director received a National Award for it.

He played in Amitabh Bachchan's debut Tamil production alongside Vikram in Ullasam, and a string of movies followed, most notably Aval Varuvala, which cast him alongside Simran and Vaali, an immense success. After Amarkalam (1999), he set up his own distribution company AK International. Ajith considers 1997 as his worst year and 1999 as his best year in Kollywood.

Throughout the Nineties, he was seen in many successful movies in guest appearances and was later cast opposite Tabu alongside Mammooty and Aishwarya Rai in Kandukondain Kandukondain and played a supporting role in Shahrukh Khan's Asoka.

Noughts

At the age of 30, he went for a radical image makeover in the blockbusters Dheena, Citizen and Red. For Villain, directed by KS Ravikumar, he won the South India Filmfare Best Actor Award. In 2004, he did Jana, which was a big failure, something that was explained with bad marketing, logistic and project management issues.

In late 2004, Ajith converted all his fanclubs into productive Narpani Eyakkams headquartered in Chennai.

He had now come back after Ji's mediocre performance of 2005 with the action thriller Paramasivan which has been a hit. Ajith's latest release is Thirupathi (2006). He is looking forward to combining with Bala for Naan Kadavul.

Personal life

Ajith is the middle son of three, born to a Sindhi mother and Malayalee father. Ajith dropped out of school in 1986 to become a part-time 2/4-wheeler mechanic and full-time garment exporter based in Erode till 1990. Business exigencies pushed him into modelling for adverts in print media which eventually paved the way into Tollywood and later Kollywood.

After his surgery for a broken vertebra he lost feeling in his legs, but he vowed to recover and walked all the way from his home in Madras to the Balaji shrine in Tirupathi in Andhra Pradesh. He shed 20 kilos in severe diet and fitness sessions within 40 days for Paramasivan directed by P.Vasu.

He was romantically linked to fellow actress Heera and met future wife Shalini on the sets of Amarkalam in 1999. He is an ambassador for the Green Revolution, an effort to clean up the Chennai environment and encouraging people to plant saplings. He uses his films for subtle marketing of his ideas in this regard.

Awards & achievements

As an actor

• Best New Face Award from Bharatmuni Art Academy for his debut film Prema Pustagam (Telugu)
• Film Fare Award, Cinema Express Award and Dinakaran Cinema Award for the film Vaali (1999)
• He is also a recipient of Cinema Express Best Artist Award for the film Mugavari (2000)
• Special Actor - State Award for the film Poovellam Un Vasam (2001)
• Film Fare Award and Dinakaran Cinema Award for the film Villan (2002)

As a race car driver

• He has participated in the Indian Formula Championships in 2002.

• He has participated in the Formula 3 BMW Asia Championships in 2003 for Indian Team.

Results : He got the 6th position in the 8th round and the 5th position in the 10th round. In total, he finished 12th among 40 drivers.

• He participated in the British F3 Scholarship in 2004 for Indian Team.

Results : He got the 3rd position in the 2nd round and in the 8th round.

Filmography

Upcoming Movies

Trivia

• He is a professional bike racer
• He is the third Indian to take part in international Formula 3 race competitions. The others being Narain Karthikeyan and Karun Chandok
• He owns a pilot licence
• He is professional photographer
• His fanbase doubled between Dheena and Villain and again doubled between Villain and Attagasam
• Rajinikanth's surprise attendance at the launch function of Paramasivan shocked all and sundry
• Director SJ Suryah has a framed picture of Ajith in the pooja room of his home and literally worships him daily to show his gratitude. He attended the launch function of Thirupadhi without invitation to show his soldarity with his mentor
• As of January 2006, he has over 60,000 registered fanclubs worldwide

External links

• Ajith Kumar at IMDb

• Indian actors
• Telugu people
• Tamil actors