With his latest action comedy Good Bad Ugly, helmed by Adhik Ravichandran, continuing its successful run in theatres, eking out good money, it is safe to say now that Ajith Kumar has compensated for the underperformance of his previous movie, director Magizh Thirumeni’s Vidaamuyarchi. With their beloved star making a grand comeback as a box-office force, his fans are extremely elated, also since he has been making strides in the realm of car racing too, which he is equally passionate about.
Although he is currently juggling both his acting and racing careers, Ajith never compromises on spending quality time with his family, and that’s a trait that adds to his off-screen charm. He and his wife Shalini often go on vacations, sometimes with their children too, creating core memories. She was even spotted at the Dubai 24H race recently, cheering on Ajith as his team celebrated a major win. While the two started dating each other as they were working together in Amarkalam (1999), they tied the knot in 2000 and have been one of Kollywood’s most beloved power couples since then.
In fact, it was at a time when he was struggling to get over a failed relationship that Ajith met Shalini, and romance blossomed between them. He once even spoke about how the previous relationship, which lasted over three years, impacted him significantly. Unfortunately, the breakup hit him as he was going through a rough patch in his career, with his films flopping one after another. Dubbing it as a terrible and demoralising period, Ajith further stated that the relationship also resulted in him developing trust issues in life.
Referring to that period, he said during a 1999 chat with Rediff, “I went through a very bad relationship, a relationship of three-and-a-half years. I am out of it now. So, a lot of things happened to me, both personally and professionally, and those things shaped me, made me grow as a human being, sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. It was traumatic for me, profession-wise, health-wise and relationship-wise.” Interestingly, Ajith gave the interview while he was gearing up to join Amarkalam, which would change his life forever.
“It was and still is very difficult to come to terms with all that. I still have not yet taken control of myself and accepted reality. I don’t know whether I should describe my feeling as ‘depressing’. But sometimes I feel, things happened too fast for me. I guess I have the experience of a 40-year-old,” he added.
When asked what went wrong in his career and personal life, Ajith said, “I think I trusted people; people connected with my work and relationship. I like to thrust that. I trusted my directors. I trusted the woman in my life. Today I scrutinise a lot before I do anything. Thanks to my relationship, I have stopped trusting people. It has made me a very bitter person. I know that is dangerous in life. Still, I haven’t gone into the gory details of our relationship and named the person.”
