From a bus conductor in Bangalore, Rajinikanth rose to become one of the most celebrated filmstars in Tamil cinema and considered a demi-God by his fans.
His movie releases are celebrated as festivals. Gigantic cut-outs of the superstar decorated with garlands and decorative lights can be seen across the state in all cinemas. The opening show of the movie will be marked by fans pouring milk over the cutouts of the actor who enjoys cult status in Tamil cinema.
Born as Shivaji Rao Gaekwad on December 12, 1950, to a Marathi couple – Jijabai and Ramojirao Gaekwad, who was a police constable, in Bangalore, the actor was named after the Maratha warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji.
Rajinikanth's early life was a struggle. After completing schooling, he did odd jobs of an office boy, carpenter and a job of loading sacks of rice into trucks at 10 paise per bag. He then sat for an examination and obtained a bus conductor's licence from the Bangalore Transport Service.
He, along with his bus driver and close friend Raja Badhar, started acting the plays from time to time which was organised under the aegis of the BTS Association. Rajinikanth, a film buff, would watch movies of Tamil actors Shivaji Ganesan and MGR and Kannada star Rajkumar. After watching the movies, he would enact scenes in the manner of these stars. After acting in more than 25 plays, his friends advised him to try his chances in cinema.
He quit his conductor job and joined the Madras Film Institute in 1973 with his friend Raja Bahadur's financial support. He was soon noticed by none other than legendary Tamil film director K Balachander who advised him to learn Tamil. He got his first break in Tamil cinema with Apoorva Raagangal (1975) directed by Balachander who gave him his screen name "Rajinikanth". He played a role of an abusive husband of the heroine and Kamal Haasan played the main role. After playing a number of villainous roles in films in 16 Vayadhinilae, Avargal and Moondru Mudichu, he got his first solo hero role in Bairavi in 1978. There was no turning back for the actor with strings of hit movies and gained immense popularity in the state.
To the surprise of all, he decided to quit acting and to pursue his spiritual quest in 1980. He was persuaded by his family and friends to continue. He returned to box office with Billa, a Tamil remake of Amitabh Bachchan starrer Don – and it became a runaway hit. His role in Mani Ratnam's Thalapathi was received well by his fans and critics. It was his movie Baasha in 1995 that gave him a demigod status. His movies dialogues and song lyrics started giving political messages creating a hype over the actor's imminent political entry. He took a break from acting after Arunachalam in 1999 and he returned with Baba three years later but the movie failed. Since 2000, he has acted only in 10 movies of which four movies did not fare well. After two successive movies – Kochadaiiyaan and Lingaa fared badly, Rajinikanth made a comeback with Kabali in 2016.
Currently he is acting in 2.0, one of the biggest budget film in the country and Kaala while the former is expected to be released in April and latter subsequently.
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- He, along with his bus driver and close friend Raja Badhar, started acting the plays from time to time which was organised under the aegis of the BTS Association.
