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. Then he donned Dual role in ASAL directed by Saran. In this movie Ajith's aged role was big hit.And after the Asal movie he acts in Mankatha with Arjun. This movie was directed by Venkat Prabhu.This movie was great success in his career he does negative role in this movie.After Mankatha, in 2012 Billa II part released which is directed by Chakri Tolerti. He does well in action scenes especially the helicopter fight.
Upcoming Movie
Right now he is doing a project with Vishnuvardhan. Not yet titled for this movie. This movie will be released on August 2013.
