Ajith Kumar filmography

Ajith Kumar in 2010

Ajith Kumar is an Indian actor who works mainly in Tamil cinema. Apart from a small role in the 1990 Tamil film En Veedu En Kanavar,[1] his professional career began three years later with his debut as a lead actor in Tamil cinema with Amaravathi (1993). Despite being a moderate success, the film helped him obtain more modelling assignments. He followed it up the same year with Prema Pusthakam, his only Telugu film to date.[2][3] After Amaravathi's release, Ajith opted against acting, and instead tried pursuing a career in auto racing. While training for an amateur race, he injured his back and underwent three major surgeries, leaving him bed-ridden for a year and a half.[4] After recovering from the injury, he played supporting roles in Paasamalargal (1994) and Pavithra (1994).[4][5] After this, he co-starred with Vijay in Rajavin Parvaiyile (1995). That same year, he had his breakthrough with the romantic thriller Aasai. His performance earned him critical acclaim and established him as an up-and-coming actor in Tamil cinema.

He was next seen as the main lead in Agathiyan's epistolary Kadhal Kottai (1996), a critical and commercial success.[4] In 1997, he had five releases, all of which were commercial failures.[3] Ajith's dual portrayal of twin brothers—where one is deaf-mute—in S. J. Suryah's Vaalee (1999) won him his first Filmfare Award for Best Tamil Actor. Impressed with his performance in that film, Rajiv Menon cast Ajith in the ensemble drama Kandukondain Kandukondain (2000) which was also commercial and critical success.[3][6] The following year, he collaborated with debutant director AR Murugadoss on the action film Dheena. The film was successful in establishing his reputation as an action hero and earning him the nickname "Thala" ("leader").[7][a] He earned critical acclaim for his dual role performance in the vigilante film Citizen (2001),[9] and the film was commercial success.[10] and a Best Actor nomination at Filmfare for the drama Poovellam Un Vasam (2001). His last release of the year was Santosh Sivan's Hindi film Aśoka, where he played a brief antagonistic role opposite Shah Rukh Khan.[11][12] His -role performance as twin brothers in K. S. Ravikumar's film Villain (2002) won him a second Filmfare Award for Best Tamil Actor.[13]

Between 2003 and 2005, Ajith cut back on his acting career to focus on his racing career.[14] During this time, he had his only commercial success with Attahasam (2004).[15][16] Two years later he starred in Ravikumar's Varalaru, in which he played three different roles. It became the highest-grossing Tamil film of that year,[17] and Ajith went on to receive his third Best Tamil Actor award at Filmfare for his performance. In 2007 he was seen in two remakes—Kireedam and Billa,[b] both of which were big box office hits.[17] His next two releases, Aegan (2008) and Aasal (2010), were critical and commercial failures.[18]

Ajith played an antihero—as a money-minded, suspended police officer—in Venkat Prabhu's Mankatha (2011).[18][c] It had the biggest opening of that year for a Tamil film,[d] and became Ajith's biggest commercial success to that point.[20] His next release, Billa II (2012), Tamil cinema's first prequel,[e] opened to mixed reviews.[22][23] He followed that with the multi-starrer Arrambam (2013) and Siva's masala film Veeram (2014), both of which were commercially successful.[24] In 2015 he collaborated with Gautham Vasudev Menon for the crime thriller Yennai Arindhaal.[25][26] His performance as an undercover police officer earned him a Best Tamil Actor nomination at the 63rd Filmfare Awards South.[27] His second release of the year, Vedalam, had the biggest opening day in Tamil cinema and was among the highest grossing Tamil films of the year.[7]

Films

Key

†	Denotes films that have not yet been released

• All films are in Tamil, unless otherwise noted.

List of Ajith Kumar film credits

Year	Film	Role(s)	Notes	Ref.
1990	En Veedu En Kanavar	School boy	Child artist	[28]
1993	Amaravathi	Arjun	Debut as lead actor	[29][30]
	Prema Pusthakam	Sreekar	Telugu film	[5][31]
1994	Paasamalargal	Kumar		[5]
	Pavithra	Ashok		[32]
1995	Rajavin Parvaiyile	Chandru		[5]
	Aasai	Jeevanantham		[33]
1996	Vaanmathi	Krishna		[34]
	Kalloori Vaasal	Vasanth		[35]
	Minor Mappillai	Ramu		[5]
	Kadhal Kottai	Surya		[5]
1997	Nesam	Ranganathan		[5]
	Raasi	Kumar		[5]
	Ullaasam	Guru		[5]
	Pagaivan	Prabhu		[5]
	Rettai Jadai Vayasu	Vijay		[5]
1998	Kaadhal Mannan	Shiva		[36]
	Aval Varuvala	Jeeva		[5]
	Unnidathil Ennai Koduthen	Sanjay	Cameo	[5]
	Uyirodu Uyiraga	Ajay		[37]
1999	Thodarum	Jayaram		[38]
	Unnai Thedi	Raghu		[39]
	Vaalee	Shiva/Deva[f]		[40][41]
	Anantha Poongatre	Jeeva		[5]
	Amarkalam	Vasu	25th film[g]	[42]
	Nee Varuvai Ena	Subramani	Extended Cameo	[5]
2000	Mugavaree	Sridhar		[43]
	Kandukondain Kandukondain	Manohar		[44]
	Unnai Kodu Ennai Tharuven	Surya		[45]
2001	Dheena	Dheenadhayalan (Thala)[h]		[46]
	Citizen	Citizen/Subramani[f]		[47]
	Poovellam Un Vasam	Chinna		[48][49]
	Aśoka	Susima	Hindi film; special appearance	[50][31]
2002	Red	Red		[51]
	Raja	Raja		[52]
	Villain	Shiva/Vishnu[f]		[13][53]
2003	Ennai Thalatta Varuvala	Sathish	Cameo	[54]
	Anjaneya	Paramaguru		[55]
2004	Jana	Janarthanan		[56]
	Attahasam	Guru/Jeeva[f]		[57]
2005	Ji	Vasu		[58]
2006	Paramasivan	Subramaniyam Siva (Paramasivan)[h]		[59]
	Thirupathi	Thirupathi		[60]
	Varalaru	Shivashankar/Vishnu/Jeeva[i]		[61][62]
2007	Aalwar	Shiva		[63]
	Kireedam	Sakthivel		[64]
	Billa	David Billa/Saravanavelu[f]		[65][66]
2008	Aegan	Shiva		[67]
2010	Aasal	Jeevanantham/Shiva[f]	Also screenwriter	[68][69]
2011	Mankatha	Vinayak Mahadev	50th film[c]	[70][71]
2012	Billa II	David Billa		[72]
	English Vinglish	A flight passenger	Tamil version of the Hindi film[j] Cameo	[74]
2013	Arrambam	Ashok Kumar		[75][76]
2014	Veeram	Vinayagam		[77][78]
2015	Yennai Arindhaal	Sathyadev		[79][80]
	Vedalam	Ganesh (Vedalam)[h]		[81]
2017	Vivegam	Ajay Kumar (AK)[h]		[82]
2019	Viswasam	Thookku Durai		[83]
	Nerkonda Paarvai	Bharath Subramaniam		[84]
2022	Valimai	Arjun Kumar		[85]
2023	Thunivu	Dark Devil		[86]
2025	Vidaamuyarchi	Arjun		[87]
	Good Bad Ugly †		Releasing on 10th April	[88]

See also

• List of awards and nominations received by Ajith Kumar

Notes

1. Ajith Kumar's character in the film is called by the nickname "Thala".[8]
2. Kireedam was a remake of the namesake 1989 Malayalam film while Billa was a remake of the 1980 Tamil film of the same name.
3. It was Ajith Kumar's 50th film.[18]
4. The film grossed ₹252 million in its first week.[19]
5. The film was a prequel to his 2007 film of the same name.[21]
6. Ajith Kumar played two characters.
7. This was Ajith's 25th film[42]
8. Ajith Kumar played a character with two or more names.
9. Ajith Kumar played three characters.
10. It was originally filmed in Hindi with a few scenes additionally shot for the Tamil version. Ajith Kumar played the role of Amitabh Bachchan in the Tamil dubbed version.[73]

References

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External links

• Ajith Kumar filmography at IMDb