Ajith who turned 49 today first came into the movies in 1993. With a career spanning nearly 3 decades, it is only natural for the star to have projects that were missed, stalled or never released. On his birthday today, we revisit such movies which today also go by "dropped films of Ajith".  

 

1. New (2001)

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When SJ Suryah first announced New in 2001, it was with his fantasy pair from Vaali, Ajith and Jyotika. It was also said that Kareena Kapoor would be making a guest appearance in the movie only for the project to get dropped as a whole. SJ Suryah's revived 2004 edition of New features him and Simran and is an adaptation of Tom Hanks' 1988 movie Big.

 

2. Mirattal (2004)

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Probably one of Ajith's biggest misses, Mirattal was supposed to be the actor's second collaboration with A.R. Murgadoss after Dheena and the actor dropped out of the film post photo-shoots because he did not want to tonsure his head. Interestingly, 11 other actors after Ajith said no to the movie because of the same reason, only for Suriya to bag the project as its 13th option giving us the blockbuster Ghajini. 

 

3. Nandha (2001)

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Ghajini was not the first project Suriya bagged from Ajith. Intially Bala had roped in Ajith for Nandha who got replaced later for reasons best known to them.

 

4. Naan Kadavul (2003)

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This was a second attempt for director Bala and Ajith to work together and Ajith had even famously grown out his hair and signed a 150-day shooting contract for the film. However, production delays caused the project to stagnate for 2 whole years before Ajith officially dropped out in 2006. The film was later revived with Arya in 2007 and ultimately released in 2009.

 

5.  Mahaa (2002)

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Ajith's supposed first movie as a cop, the actor had to discontinue shooting for this one because of an on-set injury. Director of the film Nanda Periyasamy later opened up on the incident on his social media page stating,

 

"Not many know about this. My very first directorial was titled Mahaa, which had Thala Ajith in the lead role. We shot for eight days, but he got injured during a stunt sequence. He couldn't continue to act due to this, and this resulted in a difference of opinion with the film's producer Chakravarthy. As a result, the film was stopped.. 

 

Had this movie been my debut, my career graph would have been entirely different. Mahaa was the first film in which Thala sported the getup of a police man."

 

6. Kangeyan (2006)

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Supposed to be a K.S. Ravikumar directorial, this film which promised Ajith in a wolverine mode never took off after this poster release. No one to-date knows why.

 

7. Erumugam (2001)

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The hit combo of Ajith and director Saran were collaborating on this as their 3rd venture but disagreements on the script made the Thala actor leave his role of a local don. Saran rewrote the script which was initially inspired by real life rival gangsters reforming themselves police patronage and the Tamil movie audience got the Vikram starrer masala flick Gemini.

 

9. Charumathy (1997)

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Little is known of what happened to this film, as Ajith had dropped out of it midway shooting and the movie was never revived.

 

10. Nerukku Ner (1997)

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This film would have been Ajith and Vijay's second movie together after Rajavin Parvaiyile (1995) had Ajith not dropped out after 18 days of shooting and replaced by Suriya.

 

 

11. Itihaasam (2001)

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Citizen director Saravana Subbaiyah promised Ajith in a historical role with this film's poster but the project got shelved making Asoka (Hindi) Ajith's only historical movie to date. 

 

12. Rettai Thala (2013)

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Director A.R. Murugadoss was suppose to reunite with Ajith in 213 for a project he confirmed was titled Rettai Thala. The estimated budget for this movie then was an ambitious Rs. 120 Crore and Ajith was expected to sport a stylish look and a double role. However, the project didn't get materalized with Ajith and Ar Murugadoss later narrated the same story to Vijay, which shaped up as Kaththi.  

 

 

13. Thiruda (2002)

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Jana (Ajith's 2004 movie with Sneha) makers claim that Thiruda was an early title for their film with Trisha playing female lead. However Thiruda had Ajith playing a doctor, while in Jana he was a high profile assasin.