Even with 50 films under his belt, actor Ajith remains down to earth, eschewing the trappings of stardom. Ajith's unflagging enthusiasm, backed by persistence, has seen him through all the lows in life, so when success comes calling in the form of Mankatha, his 50th film, he is not duly affected as he has put in the same effort for all his projects. The Hyderabad-born actor is confident that Gambler, the dubbed version, which released this Friday will equally entertain movie lovers in Andhra Pradesh. In Gambler, he plays an anti-hero. One has seen him either as a cop or a don numerous times but Ajith says he has experimented with various genres all along. “All my cop/gangster dramas have been spaced out but somewhere the films in which I played the bad guy were extremely successful, so people are under the impression that I play only such roles. I call it selective amnesia.”

Upon a chance meeting, a first-time hero and an assistant director made a lofty promise to each other. That promise culminated in a noir-styled movie, Baazi, in 1951. Its inimitable hero, Dev Anand, remembers his troubled and only true friend Guru Dutt. In 1946, I was on the payroll of Prabhat Film Company and was playing the lead in my first film, Hum Ek Hain. One day, as I was walking out of the studio, I saw a young man of about my age entering, and we exchanged polite hellos. “Are you doing the main role in the picture?” he asked, and I replied, “Yes.” He offered me his hand. “Well, my name is Guru Dutt and I’m an assistant director. Great to meet you. I hope to see you here more often,” he said. He gave me a beautiful smile and started to leave. A few seconds later, he turned and stared at my shirt. I looked at his. I realised he was wearing my shirt and I was wearing his. Obviously, the washerman had interchanged them. We had a hearty laugh and embraced each other. We were to be friends for all times. That was how I first met Guru. We promised each other that the day I became a producer, I’d take him on as a director, and the day he directed a film, he’d cast me as a hero. And I’m not a promise breaker. I did launch Guru as a director in Navketan’s Baazi in 1951. He even appears in the beginning of the film.

Shammi Kapoor had written in a piece (Filmfare January 3, 1958) that his was a "one man rebellion, trying to break the old and make the new. A rebel who wanted to find himself, his real self, not a reflection of the personalities of other people." And later, after giving it a thought, “I am a born Bohemian, unconventional in everything… I hate rigid, iron-clad rules and regulations. I want to be free. Perhaps that’s why I seem unusual to others. I rebel against conventions. Anything that smacks of formality, anything that is pedestrian is anathema to me.”

What did the reviews say about the new hero? Filmfare (January 31, 1958) said, "Shammi Kapoor playing a gay, carefree role discards the Kapoor grand manner and invests his portrayal with his own zestful, reckless attitude to life. His performance is more memorable for the effortless ease with which it is put over. It should prove a turning point in his career, and help put him the ranks of the top-notchers."