Ajith Kumar Made His Hindi Film Debut With Shah Rukh Khan In The Historical Drama, Asoka? ( Photo Credit – Instagram ; Asoka Poster )
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Seeing two superstars working on the same film is quite rare these days, but back in the day, there were many actors from Hindi and South cinema that has actually worked together and fans aren’t aware of it. Similarly, when Shah Rukh Khan starrer Asoka was released many didn’t know about South superstar Ajith Kumar’s involvement and interestingly he played a pretty prominent character in the film.
The 2001 film was a historical drama directed by Santosh Sivan and it also featured Kareena Kapoor, Hrishita Bhatt, and Danny Denzongpa in pivotal roles. The film was even selected for screening at the prestigious Venice Film Festival and Toronto International Film Festival, where it received tremendous response.
In Asoka, Shah Rukh Khan played the titular character, who ruled most of the Indian subcontinent in the 3rd century BCE, on the other hand, Ajith Kumar played his elder half-brother Susima Maurya.
Shah Rukh Khan starrer Asoka was the first Hindi film in which Ajith Kumar worked, later he left Bollywood to focus more on South cinema, where he became a massive superstar. Interestingly, years later, the Valimai actor made a cameo in the Tamil version of English Vinglish starring Sridevi.
Last year, Red Chillies Entertainment Twitter page shared the news, they wrote, “#DidYouKnow that #Asoka is #AjithThala’s first and only Hindi film that he’s starred in?”
A few years ago when Shah Rukh Khan attended an event in Chennai, during the function he just mentioned Ajith Kumar’s name and to his surprise, everyone in the crowd went berserk.
Later in an interview, SRK said, “When I mentioned Ajith’s name at the awards ceremony, the applause was huge. During Asoka, he was so kind. Leading my small life, I didn’t realize that he was so huge here. He didn’t take money for the film, he stayed back five extra days and his wife was so sweet, we got along very well.”
