In 2001, Ajith played the role of Shahrukh Khan's brother in the historical film Asoka. He began the year with Dheena by A.R. Murugadas. This showed Ajith as a rowdy alongside Suresh Gopi and Laila. Several movies followed: among them the Citizen opposite Vasundhara Das; romantic entertainers like Poovellam Un Vasam and Raja opposite Jyothika and the action tale Red.
He won the South India Filmfare Best Actor Award for Villain, directed by K. S. Ravikumar.[13] Villain, in which he once again donned a dual role, grossed almost Rs.300 million at the box office marking a new office box peak in Ajith's career. By then the Kollywood trade had unanimously begun calling him the King of Opening.[14]
In 2003 and 2004, Ajith acted in Anjaneya, Jana and Attagasam opposite Meera Jasmine, Sneha and Pooja respectively. Anjaneya created a new record for Telugu rights reported at almost Rs.9 million offered by Dr. Rajasekar while Ajith's salary reached a peak of almost Rs.50 million for the film but he waived it when the film did not match expectations. Jana too did not perform as expected and Ajith suffered some high profile fracas with its producer. So, he declared an end to motor racing and Attagasam, in which he donned a dual role again, was successful.[15] Attagasam rejained Ajith's status at the box office after Jana had not done so well, however there were many claims that Ajith did not look like his old self anymore.
In 2005, Ajith acted in the film Ji opposite Trisha. Project delays by director Bala and producer Chakravarthi forced him to sit idle for the rest of the year. He thus released only 4 films in the three years from 2003 through 2005.[16] The film did not do well as expected beforehand as the producers had failed to release the film when it was first made. Ajith had reach an all time low in his career and was desperately in need of a hit in early 2006.
