It was the year 1990 and Mani Ratnam’s Anjali was the talk of the town. Wherever you went, people talked about the child prodigy and her acting prowess. In the years that followed, she continued to play endearing characters on screen and established herself as one of the most popular child artistes on screen. So intense was her popularity, that she is still known to everyone as Baby Shamili.

Anjali saw Shamili portray the role of a special child to perfection and she went on to win the National Award for Best Child Artist. By mid-90s, Shamili had her hands full with projects in all four South Indian languages and was juggling them with ease. She did close to 60 movies as a child which was a pretty big feat for a child at that time.

Among the actors in her family, Ajith is someone who she admires a lot. “I have always liked his work from the beginning even before he became a part of the family. Among his movies, I really like Vaali, Billa, Villain, and Godfather.As a person, he is very non-interfering and very compassionate. He would never offer you advice or criticise you unless you ask him to. Even with my career choices, he has always been supportive of what I do.”

“When I decided to come back to movies, I thought of getting a portfolio done and he offered to do it for me. Even though I know he is an excellent photographer, I denied his offer because I thought it would be weird for me to pose in front of him. After considering for a long time, I finally agreed to it and he got busy with it immediately. He even helped me in choosing the clothes, the accessories and my pose. He is such a perfectionist that he doesn’t mind waiting to get the perfect shot. When we didn’t get it, he offered to try it the next day too!”