Mumbai, June 14 (IANS): Filmmaker Rohit Shetty, who has clocked close to 25 years of friendship with actor Ajay Devgn, says the latter is like family to him.

Their friendship is one of the strongest in the Hindi film industry, and together, they have worked as an actor-director team in nine films, including the "Golmaal" series, "Singham" and "Bol Bachchan".

Talking about their bond, Shetty told IANS: "I never realised when this friendship reached such a tremendous level. We kept on working with each other and today we are close to completing 25 years of friendship."

"This continuous working together created a bond between the two of us and it developed into a relationship. It grew so much that Ajay is now like an elder brother and family to me.

"Gradually, we started involving ourselves deeply in terms of content for the films that we were doing together and also as co-producers," he added.

The common factor between the two has been that both their fathers were renowned action directors. And despite the fact that Shetty chose to make his colossal hit "Chennai Express" with Shah Rukh Khan, with whom he is also shooting "Dilwale", it hasn't affected his friendship with Ajay.

"Dilwale" also stars Ajay's actress wife Kajol.