Billa

Not many men can boast of having earned the kind of love and adulation that Rajinikanth has. The man is not just an actor. He is a phenomenon. The mere mention of his name is known to evoke very strong emotions amongst his fans. His style, mannerisms and charisma remain unparalleled.

The style king or superstar, as he is referred to, has ruled the hearts of the young and old alike for over three decades now. The mere flick of his cigarette butt, flip of his sun glasses and the mastery with which he can kill three baddies with two bullets, have all made him the icon that he is.

Chakpak salutes the entertainer par excellence on his 62nd birthday and wishes him many more to come!!!

Rajinikanth was born Shivaji Rao Gaikwad on December 12, 1950, in Bangalore, Karnataka, to police constable Ramoji Rao Gaikwad and Jijabai.

Rajinikanth is the youngest of four. He has two elder brothers and a sister.

He was schooled at Acharya Patasala in Bangalore and then at the Vivekananda Balak Sangh, a unit of the Ramakrishna Mission. Later, his elder brother Sathyanarayana Rao Gaikwad enrolled him for a degree in science at APS College.

Rajini showed more interest in plays than in physics and dropped out of college. He then started doing odd jobs - from being a coolie to an auto driver. He was allegedly also part of a small cycle chain menacing gang.

In an attempt to mend his ways, Rajini’s brother put him into a yoga class with the famous guru Babaji. It was in this mutt that that he was able to find inner peace, develop his strong spiritual side and became an ardent devotee of baba.

Satyanarayana Rao, who was then working as head supervisor with the City Improvement Board, took him to Venkobarao, a family friend who helped him secure a conductor’s job with the city’s transport authority.

Rajini was posted as a conductor in bus numbers 10 and 10 A, that covered Srinagar to Majestic (areas in Bangalore). It was here that he met Raj Bahadur, a friend, mentor and guide he doesn’t forget to visit even now.

Rajini’s sense of humour, mannerisms and style were a rage even then with his passengers and his bus was always filled with young college students.

It was during this time that his interests in cinema and stage plays became even more pronounced. He practised stunts at Rama Hanuman Temple near his house, and actively took part in amateur stage plays. His friend Bahadur who noticed his interest and acting potential encouraged him to study at the Madras film Institute (which had just opened) and also funded his education with the extra income he earned from his milk dairy.

Rajinikanth was in a pitiful state when he entered the film institute. The money that his friends and brother sent was barely enough to meet his daily needs. He would sleep on the footpaths and go days without food. He barely had clothes to change, and would wash and wear wet clothes to college, only to be mocked at by fellow students.

During his college days, ace director K Balachander, who was impressed by his acting skills after watching one of his plays, offered him a role. But Rajini was asked to learn Tamil, which was not an easy task by any measure.

Balachander cast him in his much controversial film, Apoorva Raagangal, in the role of ‘Pandiyan’, a no-good, terminally ill husband of Srividhya. A role that was no longer than 15 minutes long. Though the role didn’t change his fate overnight, it is still the most reprised role in cinemas and tele-serials till this day.

He later debuted in Kannada with Puttana Kanagal’s Katha Sangama, again in a negative blink-and-miss role.

He debuted in Telugu with Anthuleni Katha, the remake of Aval Oru Thodar Kathai, in which he played the role of ‘Murthy’, the drunken irresponsible brother of Jayapradha. This was the first film which saw him in a full-fledged supporting role.

It was Moondru Mudichu that gave Rajinikanth some recognition in the Tamil film industry. With this film he entered into the big league of villains of that time. His performance in the very popular song “Vasantha Kaala Nadigalilae…” garnered a lot of critical acclaim and is popular even today.

Avargal, again directed by his mentor K Balachander, saw him play one of the lead roles. This was Rajini’s first Tamil film, which had S P Balasubramanium singing for him. SPB later on went on to become the voice of Rajini.

His first major role was in the 1977 Telugu film Chilakamma Cheppindi, directed by Eranki Sharma. The film won the Nandi award in the best feature film category. The film was later remade in Tamil as Nizhal Nijamagiradhu, by K Balachander with Kamal Haasan in the lead role.

He then continued to don negative roles in films like 16 Vayathinile, Aadu Puli Aattam and Gayathri. His dialogue “This is Rajini Style” from Aadu Puli Aattam became very famous at the time and is still popular with his fans.

Bhuvana Oru Kelvi Kuri was a surprise package for the audience as the very soft and affable hero Sivakumar played a negative role, while Rajinikanth who till then had played a baddie was seen in a positive role.

Rajini acted in the Kannada film Ondu Premada Kathe, which was the first south Indian black and white film to be made in cinemascope.

It was director M Bhaskar who gave Rajinikanth the tag Superstar before the release of his film, Bairavi in 1978.

Mullum Malarum, a melodrama by Balu Mahendra, showcased Rajini’s acting skills. While the film won Filmfare award for Best Tamil Film and Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Film, Rajini received Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize. He also received an appreciation letter from his mentor K Balachander.

Justice Gopinath was Rajini’s first film with his most adored actor and the man he calls his father in the film industry, Sivaji Ganesan. His proximity to the thespian grew to such an extent that Sivaji began to treat Rajinikanth as one of his sons.

Though Rajinikanth had starred alongside Sridevi in many films, Dharma Yuddam was the first film he was cast opposite her. The film also became the first major hit as a hero for Rajini.

He also got the opportunity to act alongside NTR who is the demigod of Andhra, in the Telugu film Tiger. This marked Rajinikanth’s 50th film.

Following the success of his previous film, Bhuvana Oru Kelvikkuri, director S P Muthuraman cast him in the lead role in Aarilirunthu Arubathu Varai. The film not only did well, but also earned him a lot of women audience. The film is considered to be a turning point in his career.

He became popular with the children with films like Annai Oru Alayam, Anbulla Rajinikanth and Raja Chinna Roja. While kids loved his antics with the baby elephant in Annai Oru Alayam, they were amazed to see him dance with animated characters in the film Raja Chinna Roja. The film was also the first Indian film to use animated characters with actors.

He made his debut in Malyalam with the fantasy flick, Allauddinum Albhutha Vilakkum. The film was a bi-lingual in Tamil and Malayam. It was also dubbed and released in Telugu as Allauddin Adhbhuta Deepam.

His biggest commercial success at the time came in the form of Billa, a remake of the blockbuster Hindi film, Don. The film marked the comeback for Rajini who had chosen to abruptly end his acting career. The film has become a cult classic and has inspired a number of remakes.

Rajinikanth’s very successful film Murattu Kaalai, marked the re-entry of the prestigious production house AVM into films. The film was made on a huge budget and also earned a good return for the producers. The song “Pothuvaka En Manasu Thangam…” from the film still remains one of the most popular songs among his fans.

The film Kazhugu directed by S P Muthuraman was another memorable film in Rajini’s career. The film was inspired from the 1975 Hollywood occult thriller, Race with the Devil. Though Kazhugu bombed at the box office, it achieved cult status in the 1990s.

Rajinikanth tried and succeeded at comedy with K Balachander classic Thillu Mullu, a remake of the hit Hindi film, Golmaal. Rajini accepted this film on his mentor’s insistence as KB thought that he was being stereotyped as an action hero. The film opened to positive reviews and did very well at the box-office. Director Visu’s witty dialogues added with Rajini’s comic timing made the film a huge success.

He received the Tamil Nadu State Film Special Prize for Best Actor again for triple role in the film, Moondru Mugam. The film turned out to be a blockbuster and was remade in Hindi as John Jani Janardhan. Rajinikanth played the lead role in the Hindi version as well.

Rajinikanth, an ardent devotee of Raghavendra swamy, essayed the role of the saint in his 100th film Sri Raghavendra, directed by S P Muthuraman and produced by K Balachander.

Rajinikanth forayed into production with the film Maaveeran, which starred himself and Ambika in the lead. It was also the first Tamil film to be shot with a wide high-resolution 70 mm film gauge.

Rajinikanth role as the beleaguered son in Maniratnam’s classic, Thalapathy, earned him a lot of praise. He starred alongside Malayalam superstar Mammootty and the film proved to be both, a critical and commercial success. The song "Rakkama Kaiya Thattu…" scored by Ilayaraja and sung by SPB and Swarnalatha was listed in BBC World Top Ten music poll.

The film Annamalai introduced the trend of opening songs in his films. All of his consecutive films till Sivaji had an opening song sung by S P Balasubramium and coincidentally all of these films were blockbusters and ran for no less than 175 days in various centres.

His film Muthu was dubbed in Japanese and released under the title, Muthu Odoru Maharaja (meaning: Muthu-The dancing Maharaja). It completed a 185-day run and collected 200 million yen at the box-office. The video of the song “Thillana Thillana…” featuring Rajinikanth and Meena became very popular and the soundtrack was selected as the most popular foreign soundtrack in Japan. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a special note about the film in his speech at the National Diet of Japan in 2006.

Rajini worked in a lone Hollywood film titled Bloodstone, directed by Dwight Little and produced by Ashok Amritraj. He played the role of a taxi driver in it. The film failed to create any buzz and tanked without a trace.

A slew of super successful films like Yejaman, Arunachalam, Padayappa, and Chandramukhi reinforced his numero uno position at the box office.

With Baba, Rajini tried his hand at story and screenplay. His Midas touch failed to work and the film which was sold at a record price was a major disaster. Distributors incurred such huge losses that Rajini re-compensated them.

Sivaji, starring Rajini and Shriya Saran in the lead, was a hugely successful film and one of the biggest block busters of his career. It raked in the moolah like never before. Sivaji is all set to be re-released in 3D on his birthday.

Enthiran, directed by Shankar, saw Rajini pair up with none other than Aishwarya Rai. This coupled with mind boggling special effects gave the film its biggest opening ever in Indian film history. The film album composed by A R Rahman, was the first to reach the number 1 position on iTunes.

Rajini will next be seen in Kochadaiyaan, a period film being directed by his daughter Soundarya. The film is being shot with motion capture in 3D, and has Deepika Padukone playing his love interest. The film is in post-production and his fans wait with baited breath for it to hit the screens.

Rajinikanth is known to never forget his friends from the past. He helped his driver friend Bahadur, who was instrumental in shaping his career, by roping him to play a cameo in his film Valli. Bahadur was paid 2 lakhs for his role and the money still fetches him interest from the bank.

Rajinikanth married Latha Rangachari, an English literature graduate, who hails from an elite Iyengar family, in 1981. Latha is the sister-in-law of the famous actor and dramatist Y G Mahendran.

Rajinikanth first met Latha, when she interviewed him along with a group of college friends. The actor was immediately taken by her beauty and intelligence and approached his colleague Y G Mahendran. When the proposal was made to Latha and her family, they readily agreed.

The couple has two daughters Aishwarya (born in 1982) and Soundarya (born in 1984).

Aishwarya is a classical dancer and a playback singer. She married actor Dhanush in 2004 and has two kids, Yathra and Linga. She also directed the film 3 starring Dhanush and Shruthi Haasan

Soundarya is a graphic designer and producer. She is the founder and owner of Ocher Picture Productions which is producing Kochadaiyan, starring her father. Soundarya is married to Chennai based industrialist Ashwin Ramkumar.

Latha Rajinikanth is also a film producer, play back singer and a philanthropist. Her famous songs as a playback singer include “Netru Indha Neram…” from the film Tik Tik Tik and “Kadavul Ullamae…" from Anbulla Rajinikanth.

Rajini is not called a simple man for no reason. Though he is one of the highest paid actors in Asia, only next to Jackie Chan, he still takes pleasure in the simplest of things. During his breaks in shooting he does not demand any luxuries and instead prefers to sleep on the floors of the sets, even without a pillow, merely covering his eyes with a wet cloth.

He relishes the chats that he eats at the roadside shops on Bull Temple road in Bangalore; Idlis from a roadside eatery near his residence in Poes Garden, Chennai is another of his favourites.

Rajini has become such a phenomenon that he has become a subject of study in schools and colleges. His blockbuster film Enthiran, was introduced as a case study to analyse the business of cinema and its success, as part of an elective course called Contemporary Film Industry: A Business Perspective. The course also included his other hit Muthu.

His rise to superstardom from being a bus conductor has become part of the syllabus for sixth standard CBSE students. It has been placed under the section ‘Dignity of Work’, in English books.

Rajinikanth jokes that started to make its rounds after the release of his high budget film Enthiran, have made him more popular than ever. His popularity has spread to the northern states through Facebook posts and SMSs.

Rajinikanth, who is very spiritual, makes it a point to visit one of the pilgrimage centres either before or post the release of all his films. He occasionally also visits the Himalayas. If his friend Bahadur is to be believed, during his Himalaya visits, Rajini has had encounters with saints who have been living there for over 2,000 years.

In his Poes garden residence Rajini has a special pooja room which has been done up according to Vaastu experts. Rajini meditates and prays only in this room and entry into the room is restricted even to his family members.

Rajini has kept away from politics for most part. He did change his allegiance from the Congress to DMK-TMC to AIADMK-BJP alliance in various elections; he now refuses to air his views and has kept away from active politics.

Several authors have tried to trace Rajini’s rags-to-riches story, but none of the biographies have been authorized by the actor. Notable amongst them are “The name is Rajinikanth” by Gayathri Sreekanth and “Rajinikanth: The Definitive Biography” by Naman Ramachandran. But the curiosity levels to know the man and what makes him tick is so high that any information available about him is devoured by his fans.

Rajini has been conferred with the Padma Bhushan and he has won multiple Filmfare awards. He has won several state awards including the Kalaimamani and MGR awards. He has been named the most influential person by Asiaweek and Forbes India. Rajini was chosen as the Entertainer of the Year in 2007 and Entertainer of the Decade in 2010 by NDTV.