Ajith Pogum Paadhai

First off, congratulations to Ajith and Shalini on the birth of their baby girl. With Billa turning out to be a superhit and now this promotion to dad, 2008 has started on a wonderful note for the actor.

Sun TV telecast an interview with him as part of their New Year programs, under the title Ajith Pogum Paadhai. Ajith was known to be real reclusive when it came to the media and I'm not sure if he has ever given TV interviews before last Diwali, when he spoke to Kalaignar TV. But he seems to have really opened up now. Apart from Sun TV, he apparently also appeared on both Vijay TV and Jaya TV the same day. As far as the Sun TV interview goes, the combination of interesting questions and his frank answers about what is definitely an interesting career made for a very interesting hour.

He started off explaining the reasons behind his reluctance to talk to the press("I am very introverted in general except with friends and family"). He made some intelligent statements on his role as an actor("there is a thin line between involvement and interference when it comes to an actor's participation in movies"). He had a lot of praise for his fans who stood by him through his ups and downs. He was very diplomatic when asked about acting in multi-starrers(specifically with Vijay). He said there was no need for them to act together now but if the need arose, he would do it. He said they had to personal animosity and laughed about the fans placing importance on even whose name is mentioned first in articles. He said he took care in personally wishing and talking to everyone around him since he has heard first hand how they felt when they were ignored by other actors.

More interesting was his frankness and honesty. He spoke honestly about his flops(he specifically talked about 1997, a year in which all 5 of his releases were disasters). He accepted his lack of contribution in the early phase of his career in movies like Aasai and Kaadhal Koattai. He praised S.J.Suryah as a director though he had a few "perverted thoughts" and said that Tamil cinema was missing out on a good director ever since he became an actor (he compared his own diversion into racing to SJ's foray into acting). He explained convincingly, the controversy over his statement about wanting to become the next Superstar.

Vishnu Vardhan, Charan, S.J.Suryah, Vasanth and K.S.Ravikumar had comments about him. Predictably, they praised him and all of them commented about his stubbornness and will to succeed. KSR had some interesting anecdotes about Varalaaru and Ajith's hesitation in doing the dancer's role. But S.J.Suryah(in a horrid hairstyle) came off looking the most sincere as he attributed everything he had today to Ajith and his confidence in the then-new director. He also had the perfect answer for the oft-repeated question about who would be the next Superstar - he said that there is only one Superstar - Rajnikanth - but the position he wants Ajith to reach is one where there is competition among the actors of tomorrow on who would become the next Ultimate Star.