Shalini had said in a 2009 interview with JFW that she enjoyed acting but Ajith was more tempting. She is not the kind of person who could manage a home and an acting career. She also mentioned that it feels good when people tell her that they miss her acting but they respect her decision. Now, a photo of Shalini and Ajith from their Deepavali celebration has gone viral on social media. In the photo, Ajith is seen with his hands on Shalini’s shoulder. While she is wearing a bright magenta cocktail saree, Ajith is wearing a dark purple shirt. Both of them are gleeful in the photo together. If the reports are to be believed, the picture which was originally shared by Shalini’s brother Richard Rishi on social media was clicked during a private Deepavali party attended by the couple.
Shalini used to be one of the most favourite famous and pretty actresses in the early 21st century. Her movies like ‘Kadhulukku Mariyadhai with Vijay, ‘Amarkalam’ with her hubby Ajith gave her career a straight shot to get into Mani Ratnam’s ‘Alaipayudhey’ along with Madhavan. She garnered loads of love and affection post that. However, post her marriage she stopped acting on her own wish but her fans were really upset about it.
But, Shalini is quite happy with her decision and is leading a happy life with her two kids. We may have heard their love story often about meeting on the sets of Amarkalam and eventually falling in love. But, there is more to this story than we know of. Malayalam actor Kunchacko Boban revealed that their love story began way before Amarkalam. In fact, Ajith used to call Shalini through Boban’s phone to avoid suspicion.
In times when Shalini and Ajith were in love, phones were not that popular. It was Kunchacko Boban who had a newly-bought Sony Ericcson. To avoid any further suspicion Shalini’s parents would develop towards Ajith, the couple decided to have a code word and that was AK-47. Shalini’s name in Kunchacko’s film was Sona and whenever Ajith would call, Boban would say, “Sona, AK-47 on the line for you.”
Kunchacko and Shalini shot for about a month for the film, canning college scenes, and after a period of time, the movie’s director, Kamal, started getting suspicious over the AK-47 code word. When he confronted Kunchacko, he revealed the secret to Kamal and the next day, during a shoot break, the director asked Shalini as to why AK-47 didn’t call her on that day, making Shalini blush. The couple is now happily married for over 22 years and has two children Anoushka and Adhvik. On the work front, Ajith is working on H Vinoth’s Thunivu which is expected to release for Pongal 2023.