Today every Ajith film gets released in a huge number of screens. Big screens are always reserved for his films. But in 2006 Diwali season saw five new Tamil releases. Among them, Ajith`s Varalaaru` directed by veteran K.S.Ravikumar, which released after being in the making for a long time was allotted only two shows in the biggest screen of the most popular multiplex in Chennai. Two more shows were given in a smaller screen.

But the film that released with such a low expectation as far as general audience is concerned turned out to be another path-breaker in Ajith`s career. It is one of the biggest blockbusters of Ajith`s entire career so far. Varalaaru` was also special for it is the first and only triple role film of Ajith. The actor played three roles, as the protagonist who is a effeminate Bharathanatyam dancer, his good son and evil son. The film won phenomenal critical acclaim.

The next film was Alwar` in which he acted after opting out of Naan Kadavul` directed by Bala for which he even grew long hair and drastically reduced his body weight. But Alwar` which had a tremendous pre-release expectations ended up as a disaster. Ajith returned to family oriented subject after a long time with Kireedom` the remake of a classic Malayalam film with the same title. The film was critically acclaimed but did not fetch great returns at the box office.

It was at this point Ajith dared to act in the remake of Superstar Rajinikanth`s blockbuster Billa`. The film was not only a blockbuster but also hailed as one of the most stylish films made in Tamil cinema and also gave a uber cool urban look for Ajith which he continued in many of his films to follow.

After Billa` there were two more back to back flops (Aegan` and Aasal`) and a brief gap as Ajith started focusing again on racing and also missed out teaming up with director Gautham Menon. Ajith had also started reducing the frequency of his films. It was hard to catch him on screen at least once a year.

Suddenly there was an unexpected announcement that Ajith, for his landmark 50thfilm will be teaming up with director Venkat Prabhu who had given three super hit youthful films.

Ajith did many first in this film. He sported the salt & pepper look and the character of his real age. He also played a ruthless money freak villain who remains so until the end of the film. The film turned out to be a mega blockbuster as expected and another important milestone in Ajith`s career. This was also probably the last film which was liked by almost all groups of audiences, from A to C and 6 to 60. Prior to release of this film Ajith took the drastic step of dismantling his fan clubs and he was the first actor to do this. This had also created a huge respect for Ajith among the people.

Ajith acted in Billa 2` the first ever prequel in Tamil cinema but the film did not match the expectations. Again he teamed up with Billa` director Vishnuvaradhan and delivered Arrambam` which turned out to be a hit.

But by this time critics started mentioning that Ajith has not come out of the Billa` hangover of wearing stylish costumes and coolers. Probably to break this notion, Ajith played a rural man in director Siva`s Veeram` and appeared with a white shirt and veshti throughout the film. The film turned out to be a huge hit despite getting mixed reviews.

After this, Ajith sparked a big surprise to his fans…. Read that in the Part -3 of this article.