Shalini

Shalini was born in a Protestant Malayali Christian family to Babu and Alice on 20 November 1979.[1][4][5][6] Her father is from Kollam.[7] Her father migrated to Madras with an ambition of becoming an actor and the family settled there. Later, he fulfilled his ambition through his children.[8] Shalini attended Fatima Matriculation Higher Secondary School (K.G to 8th), Adarsh Vidyalaya, Chennai (9th to 10th) and Church Park, Chennai (11th and 12th). She completed college at Annamalai University.[2] She is the middle child. Her younger sister Shamili and her elder brother Richard are also actors in the film industry. Shalini has stated that she enjoys badminton and has played in a few state-level tournaments.[9][10]

Shalini started her career as a child artist in Ente Mamattikkuttiyammakku and she acted in all the films under the direction of Fazil.[11] She also played the lead character in the TV serial Amloo telecast in the late 1980s on Doordarshan.[12] Her iconic hairstyle, a short bob with a front fringe, is still popularly known as the “Baby Shalini hair cut”.[13]

Shalini soon went to study, and she returned to acting with Aniyathipravu, which was a blockbuster. In her next film Kaliyoonjal (1997), she co-starred with Mammootty and Dileep and it released to mixed reviews. After the success of the Malayalam Aniyathipravu, Fazil remade it in Tamil as Kadhalukku Mariyadhai (1997). Initially, Fazil was keen on casting a débutante in the lead female role, but Shalini insisted that she should also star in the Tamil version.[14] Like the Malayalam version, Kadhalukku Mariyadhai was also a blockbuster, and Shalini’s performance was also praised with Indolink.com recommending the film and citing that "Shalini returns in this film with a good performance".[15]

For Amarkalam (1999), Saran initially approached Shalini, who was studying at the time and she refused, but after a three-month pursuit, he finally got her to sign on as well.[16] She was offered a role in Padayappa,[17] which she rejected. The success of the film Kadhalukku Mariyadhai prompted Fazil to make another film with the lead pair, Vijay and Shalini, in 2000: Kannukkul Nilavu, which was a flop at the box office. Under Mani Ratnam’s direction, Shalini acted in arguably her most popular film Alaipayuthey (2000). She subsequently won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize for her role in the film. In 2001, her last film Piriyadha Varam Vendum released, a remake of the Malayalam movie Niram, also starring Shalini.

In 1999, during the shoot of Saran's Amarkalam, Shalini began to date her co-star Ajith Kumar. He proposed to Shalini in June 1999, and following consultations with her family, she accepted.[18] They got married in April 2000 at Chennai. After their marriage, Shalini retired as an actress, following the completion of her unfinished projects. The couple have two children, a daughter, Anoushka, born in 2008, and a son, Aadvik, born in 2015.[19][20]