Ajith hospitalised!

Shobha Warrier in Madras

The day film star Ajith's film Deena was released for Pongal, he was admitted to the Apollo Hospital in Madras.

His back has acted up again.

Ajith always had a deep passion for motor racing, but he had to relinquish it after he met with a near fatal accident on the race track.

With a broken back, he was bedridden for over a year. He had told me in one of his earlier interviews that he would have become a professional racer had he not met with the accident.

But destiny had fame of another kind for him: as a well-known and successful actor.

The accident left a deep scar on his back, which keeps attacking him intermittently. In the last few years, he has had to be admitted to the hospital several times, and he was operated upon at least four times.

Again, in the last few weeks, his back has been troubling him once again. But he was in a hurry to finish his most ambitious project, Citizen. Finally, the pain became unbearable and one day, the shooting of Citizen had to be cancelled. Ajith got himself admitted in the hospital, just before Pongal.

He was operated upon for the fifth time on Monday, January 15, and was in the ICU for two days. He has since been shifted to a room, but no visitor is allowed to meet him or be with him except of course his dear wife, Shalini.

"He was smiling and talking when I met him in the morning. But he will need to be in the hospital for another 15, and can start shooting only after a three-week rest," his secretary Suresh Chandra said.

Ajith has every reason to smile -- even through his excruciating pain. Deena fetched a fantastic initial, according to his secretary. "Some trade pundits told me that Deena had as good an initial as that of a Rajni(kant) film.

"Anyway, so far the film is doing very well. I conveyed this message to Ajith and he is very happy."