RACING PAST FAME

WHILE TAMIL CINEMA'S STARS TEND TO CHASE POLITICS, AJITH KUMAR PURSUES THE CHEQUERED FLAG — AND A CAREER ON HIS OWN UNCOMPROMISING TERMS

- Prathyush Parasuraman

STARDOM CANNOT BE PLOTTED. It is bestowed, even if one attempts to slip away from it. Some stars, such as Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, and now, Vijay, have found ways to funnel their reel fame into real votes, following the Tamil tradition of performer-to-politician.

Not Ajith Kumar. He is a reluctant star. "I am in the movies basically for the money and, frankly, I have a hard time believing those who say they act for the love of acting," the actor told Rediff as far back as 1997, very early in his career. It was a shocking admission then. It remains shocking now. Most stars pretend the adulation is incidental, and that they're artistes first. It now feels like Ajith simply said the quiet part out loud — and then spent the next three decades trying to mean it.

Born in 1971 in Secunderabad (now in Telangana) to a Sindhi mother and a Malayali father, he dropped out of school and was drawn to the rough hum of bikes and cars. As a young man, he briefly apprenticed at Royal Enfield in Chennai before switching to a garment export business, where his good looks launched an adjacent career modelling those clothes. Cinema came knocking, but in fits and starts.

While he made his debut in 1993 with Amaravathi when he was 22, it was only in 1995 that his career took off with Aasai. Even as Ajith wasn't chasing stardom, the rumblings of a fandom could be heard in the demand for a moniker — now a sure sign that people want to speak of you without saying your name, out of reverence. “Aasai Nayagan” — chief of romance — was workshopped in the discourse. His mailbox would be full of love letters from girls written on handkerchiefs in their own blood. He responded sincerely, but uncomfortably.

Over time, as he transitioned from musical romance to raw muscle, he was referred to as “Lucky Star” or “Ultimate Star”. But the moniker that stuck was