Ajith Kumar Biography

Profile:

Actor Full Name: Ajith Kumar

Titles: Lucky Star, Ultimate Star

Height: 5’ 11’’

Brought up in: Chennai

Mother tongue: Tamil

Family: Subramaninam (Father), Mohini (Mother), Shalini (Wife) & two brothers.

Date of Birth: 1^st May 1971

First Film: Prema Pusthagam (1993) in Telugu, Amaravathi (1993) in Tamil.

Favourite Dress: Jeans & T-Shirt

Favourite Holidays spot: London

Special Talent: Racing

Life & Career:

Ajith Kumar is an Tamil film actor and car racer, who has acted in many Tamil, Telugu and Hindi movies.

Ajith Kumar was born as the middle child in Hyderabad to a tamil father and a sindhi mother. However he has strong ties to the Tamil culture and society as he grew up in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He dropped out of Asan Memorial Senior Secondary School in 1986 to become a part-time two-four wheeler mechanic and a full-time garment exporter based in Erode till 1990. Several business agencies pushed him into modelling for advertisements in print media.

Ajith began dating his Amarkalam co-star Shalini in 1999 . They both married in 2000 in Chennai, where they invited many other Kollywood actors and actresses including Rajnikanth, Kamal Haasan, Joseph Vijay, Surya Sivakumar and R. Madhavan. On January 3, 2008, the couple were blessed with a baby girl, Anoushka Kumar.

Ajith is an ardent car racer, he also participated in various races like Formula 2 Championship, 2003 Formula Asia BMW Championship & many races in abroad.

Career:

Ajith started his film career at the age of 21 as an actor in the Telugu movie Prema Pustagam in 1992. His next film was a superhit Tamil film Amaravathi. His second Tamil film Pavithra was delayed for 17 months because of a racing injury that left him bed-ridden. Both films received vast appreciation from tamil audience. It was his third Tamil film that released 10 months later in 1995, Aasai, directed by Vasanth and produced by Mani Rathnam which helped establish his career as a actor in Kollywood.

Ajith's first big budget venture was Aasai but it was only until the release of Agathiyan's blockbuster Vaanmathi and particularly the National Award winning Kadhal Kottai which established him as an actor in Kollywood. Ajith later played the lead in Amitabh Bachchan's debut Tamil production Ullasam. This venture paid him a salary of over Rs. 1 million for the first time ever.

A string of very successful movies followed, most notably Kadhal Mannan and Vaali which cast him alongside Simran. Vaali saw a new peak in Ajith's career. He played a dual role in the film. One as a deaf-and-dumb twin who lusts after his naive brother's wife . After Amarkalam with his then-fiancee, now wife Shalini, Ajith set up his own distribution company AK International with the office located within the premises of NIC Arts which was run by his ex-friend, producer and 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.66 million. Mugavari followed as Ajith acted alongside Jyothika Saravanan.

In 2001 , Ajith played the role of Shahrukh Khan's brother in the commercially unsuccessful historical film Asoka. He began the year with the scintillating movie Dheena directed by A. R. Murugadoss. This movie showed Ajith as a rowdy and he acted alongside Suresh Gopi and Laila Mehdin. Citizen opposite Vasundhara Das was experimentally successful and earned the actor with lot of appreciation and awards but the movie failed to mark its signature in the box office, Citizen was followed by Poovellam Un Vaasam which was also an average grosser. The film Raja opposite Jyothika Saravanan and the action flick Red  proved to be a disaster for the actor and marked the downfall and an proved to be an all-time low in the actor's career.

In 2003 and 2004, Ajith acted in Anjaneya, Jana and Attagasam. While Anjaneya and Jana flopped at the box office, Attagasam became a hit, also giving a successful soundtrack album. He later went on to act in the film Ji which opened very well but failed to sustain success in the longrun.

During 2006, Ajith acted in 3 projects. First he acted in Paramasivan directed P. Vasu and then in Thirupathi directed by Perarasu. Both were hit. Later that year he released his 3 year-pending project Varalaru: History of Godfather directed by K. S. Ravikumar. Varalaru turned out to be a super hit movie in terms of collection due to the three roles he played as an old man who was once a classical dancer and two identical twins, with one being the antagonist.

Ajith's first film in 2007 was with the newcomer director Chella in his maiden film entitled Aalwar. Aalwar did not live up to the expectations created by the success of Varalaru. As a result it was a major let down for Ajith. After Aalwar, Ajith acted in a remake of a 1989 National Film Award winning Malayalam film, Kireedam with Trisha Krishnan.

On December 14, 2007 Billa released breaking all his previous records. The movie was the remake of Rajinikanth's 1980 Tamil film Billa. After Billa, Ajith has in Aegan directed by Raju Sundaram which had been released on October 25, 2008. In 2010 his next release Asal Arrived and it doesnt become a hit. In late 2010 he started working for the movie MANKATHA under Venkat Prabhu which is under production now. After Mankatha he will start working on Billa 2, which released on 13 july 2012 to mixed reviews with critics praising Ajith's screen presence and stunts, film's cinematography, pace and style while criticizing the climax to be poor and blaming the director. However it took extraordinary opening and was declared a commercial success, though not as big as his previous blockbuster Mankatha.

He is currently acting in Vishnuvardhan's Valai alongside Arya and Nayanthara.

Awards and nominations:

Tamil Nadu State Film Awards

Winner

·         Tamil Nadu State Film Special Award for Best Actor - Poovellam Un Vasam (2001)

·         Tamil Nadu State Film Honorary MGR Award - Varalaru (2006)

Filmfare Awards South

Winner

·         Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil - Vaali (1999)

·         Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil - Villain (2002)

·         Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil - Varalaru (2006)

Nominated

·         Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil - Billa (2007)

·         Filmfare Award for Best Actor – Tamil - Mankatha (2011)

Vijay Awards

Winner

·         Vijay Award for Favourite Hero - Varalaru (2006)

·         Vijay Award for Best Villain - Mankatha (2011)

·         Vijay Award for Favourite Hero - Mankatha (2011)

Nominated

·         Vijay Award for Favourite Hero - Billa (2007)

·         Vijay Award for Favourite Hero - Aegan (2008)

·         Vijay Award for Favourite Hero - Asal (2010)

Other Awards

Winner

·         Cinema Express Award for Best Actor - Tamil - Vaali (1999)

·         Cinema Express Award for Best Actor - Tamil - Citizen (2001)

·         Chennai Times Award for Best Actor - Mankatha (2011)

Nominated

·         Zee Cine Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role - Asoka (2001)

·         SIIMA Award for Best Actor – Tamil - Mankatha (2011)

·         SIIMA Award for Best Actor in a Negative Role – Tamil - Mankatha (2011)