Rajinikanth

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Rajinikanth
Rajinikanth in Arunachalam (1997)
Born	Shivaji Rao Gaekwad December 12, 1949 (1949-12-12) (age 58)[1] Karnataka India
Other name(s)	Rajni, Super Star, Thalaivar
Occupation	Actor
Years active	1975 to present
Spouse(s)	Latha Rajinikanth
Official website
Awards won Filmfare Awards Best Actor Muthu (1995) Other Awards Kalaimamani (1984) Padmabhushan (2000) Tamil Nadu Government Award for Best Actor ( Chandramukhi) (2007) Reliance Mobile Vijay Award 2007 for Favourite Hero (2008) NDtv Award Entertainer (2007)

Rajinikanth (Kannada: ರಜನೀಕಾಂತ್,Marathi : रजनीकांत,Tamil: ரஜினிகாந்த், Telugu: రజినీకాంత్ - మట్టి బాబు) (born Shivaji Rao Gaekwad, December 12,^[1] 1949) is one of the most influential and bankable movie stars in the Indian film industry, a superstar in the Tamil and Telugu film industries. He received India's third highest honour, the Padma Bhushan, for his contribution to Indian cinema in 2000.^[2] He was reportedly paid Rs. 25 crores (about USD 6.25 Million) for his latest blockbuster Sivaji, which would make him the highest paid actor in all of India if all the other publicly available compensation figures for other high profile Indian stars are accurate.^[3]

Contents 1 Early life 2 Personal 3 Acting career 3.1 1975-1979 3.2 1980-1989 3.3 1990 to 1999 3.4 2000 to Present 3.5 Upcoming Films 3.6 Other work 4 Awards and honours 5 Politics 5.1 Political Controversies 6 Philanthropic activities 7 Further reading 8 See also 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Early life

Rajinikanth was born to a Maratha family in Karnataka.^[4][5] He was the fourth child of his parents, Jijabai and Ramojirao Gaekwad.^[1] He was named Shivajirao Gaekwad. Gaekwad is a family name among the Marathas. He lost his mother at the age of five. He did his schooling at the Acharya Paatashala in Bangalore and then at the Vivekananda Balaka Sangha. Rajinikanth struggled a lot during his early age because of poverty. Although his mother-tongue is Marathi,^[6][7] he has not acted in any Marathi movies yet. He began his career doing various jobs in Bangalore. He also attended a theatre for stage plays. Before starting his career in the film industry, he worked as a bus conductor for the Bangalore Transport Service in Bangalore^[8] It was during this time that he nurtured his acting interests by performing in various stage plays.^[8]

[edit] Personal

He married Latha on February 26, 1981, at the age of 31 in Tirumala - Tirupati and they have two children: Aishwariya and Soundarya. Latha currently runs a school named The Ashram.

His elder daughter Aishwariya married actor Dhanush on November 18, 2004 and they have one son, Yathra.^[9]

[edit] Acting career

For more details on this topic, see Rajinikanth filmography.

He joined the Madras Film institute in 1973 with the help of a friend and completed a basic course in acting.^[10]

[edit] 1975-1979

Rajinikanth's first film was in Tamil cinema, where he was initially cast in supporting roles, debuting as a cancer patient in Apoorva Raagangal in 1975.^[11] The film was directed by K. Balachander, who is constantly referred to by Rajinikanth as his own guru or mentor. The following year, Rajinikanth acted in his first Kannada film, Katha Sangama, directed by Puttanna Kanagal. Though Rajinikanth refers to director K. Balachander as his "guru" or mentor, it was director S. P. Muthuraman who actually revamped Rajinikanth’s image entirely. Muthuraman first experimented with him in a positive role in Bhuvana Oru Kelvikkuri (1977), as a villain in the first half and a do-gooder in the second, accepting a woman with a child abandoned by her lover. Around this time Mullum Malarum (1978), directed by J. Mahendran, established Rajinikanth in the Tamil film arena. The success of Bhuvana Oru Kelvikkuri prompted Muthuraman to make a mushy melodrama with Rajinikanth as a hero sacrificing everything for his siblings in Aarilirunthu Arubathu Varai (1979). These films were the turning points in Rajinikanth’s career — he changed from an actor who merely enthralled the audiences, to one who could also make them cry. The acceptance of Rajinikanth sans his mannerisms proved he had at last become a "star" from a "common actor." His film roles were mainly as a villain during the period 1975 to 1977, frequently with Kamal Haasan as the hero, in movies like Pathinaaru Vayadhinilae , Moondru Mudichu and Avargal (All 1977).

[edit] 1980-1989

During this phase of his career when he was reaching dazzling heights, Rajinikanth abruptly chose to quit acting, but was coaxed back.^[12] He started again with Billa, which was a remake of Amitabh Bachchan starrer Don. With its phenomenal success he was accepted as a full-fledged hero. Billa was followed by a row of hits like Murattukaalai,Pokkiri Raja, Thanikattu Raja, Naan Mahaan Alla, Pudukavithai^{[13] [14]} and Moondru Mugam. K. Balachander’s first home production, Netrikan proved to be yet another milestone in Rajini’s career. . He even acted as himself alongside Meena, who was a child actor then, in the movie Anbulla Rajinikanth (1984). More box-office hits dominated the 80's with Padikkathavan, Thee, Velaikkaran, Dharmathin Thalaivan, Mr. Bharath, and Maaveeran, all of them re-makes of hit Bollywood Amitabh Bachchan starrers, Khud-Daar, Deewaar, Namak Halaal, Kasme Vaade, Trishul, and Mard, respectively.^[15] In his 100th movie, Sri Raghavendra, he played the Hindu saint Raghavendra Swami.

[edit] 1990 to 1999

The vast majority of his movies released during the nineties were extremely successful, notably Thalapathy, Mannan, Annamalai, Uzhaippali, Veera, Baasha, Muthu,^[16], Arunachalam and Padayappa. Rajinikanth wrote his first screenplay for the film Valli (1993). His cult classic Baasha, released in 1995, went on to become a massive blockbuster and is routinely touted by his fans and critics alike as the movie which elevated him from being just another very popular actor with loads of charisma to an almost demigod status in the eyes of the masses. His film Muthu was the first Tamil film to be dubbed into Japanese as Muthu: The Dancing Maharajah and became very popular in Japan.^[17][18] Throughout this decade, Rajinikanth established himself as an unparalleled box office phenomenon; all of the films mentioned in this era were all formulaic mass entertainers which routinely created box office records. It can be argued that it was also during this time that Rajinikanth and the political world began to converge, whether that confluence was voluntary or involuntary is debatable, but the objective fact cannot be disputed that as his films began to take on a whole new dimension in terms of expectations, hype and revenue, his political clout also steadily rose with the cinematic tide as well. This trend began with the release of Annamalai in 1992 and arguably climaxed during the time of Padayappa's release in 1999.

[edit] 2000 to Present

The new millenium began very well for Rajinikanth; his last film Padayappa came out in 1999 and had rewritten box office records and all things seemed perfect. Finally, after more than a three year sabbatical from cinema, at 53 years of age, he starred in his home production, Baba, which released on August 15, 2002 amidst much fanfare and extreme hype. The film failed miserably to meet the expectations due to a very weak screenplay, which Rajinikanth himself had written, his second stint at screenplay writing after Valli. The thin screenplay revolved around spirituality and when compared to his previous film, Padayappa, it was a colossal disappointment. Although the film grossed enough to cover its budget, it was viewed as a tremendous loss when compared to his previous box office successes throughout his career. It fell short of market expectations and the high bids reportedly translated to heavy losses for the distributors. It is rumoured that Rajinikanth himself repaid the losses incurred by the distributors who possessed immense faith in him.^[19][20] After the Baba debacle, Rajinikanth mulled over numerous scripts with many directors, including K.S. Ravikumar and finally chose to make a film with director P. Vasu and thus the film Chandramukhi was born. Many people within and without the industry had written Rajinikanth off after the Baba fiasco, essentially saying 'the bloom was off the rose" and that "the gold does not glitter anymore".^[21] In essence, many viewed Chandramukhi as Rajinikanth's comeback film, his make or break movie and in the end, when it was released on April 14, 2005, it went on to create new box office records and smashed his own previous records and once and for all removed any doubt within the industry with regards to Rajinikanth's box office clout and incomparable appeal to the masses. ^[22] His most recent release, Sivaji: The Boss, directed by S. Shankar released on June 15, 2007 and subsequently went on to become a blockbuster of mammoth proportions and sky rocketed Rajinikanth onto the national scene even more so than ever before; Sivaji became the first Tamil movie to make the UK and South Africa box office Top 10 upon release.

[edit] Upcoming Films

During the course of the production for Sivaji, Ocher Studios, the animation company of Rajinikanth's daughter Soundarya Rajinikanth, in association with Adlabs announced their intention of producing a CGI animation film starring an animated version of Rajinikanth. He will be lending his voice to the lead character (based on his likeness) and the project is titled Sultan: The Warrior; it will be directed by his daughter Soundarya Rajinikanth with music provided by A. R. Rahman. The movie is scheduled for a April 2009 release. Besides the CGI animation film, Rajinikanth has two feature films forthcoming. The first is being produced by his mentor K. Balachander under his Kavithalaya Productions banner and is titled Kuselan. It is being helmed by P. Vasu of Chandramukhi fame and will be a bilingual film, being made concurrently in Tamil and in Telugu as Kucheledu; it is not a full fledged role for Rajinikanth, but a cameo, although the director has reportedly extended the role. It will be released sometime in the summer of 2008, perhaps in July. Once that is completed, Rajinikanth will join hands with the Sivaji team of S. Shankar and A. R. Rahman once again for another magnum opus, an alleged science fiction thriller tentatively entitled Robot. Aishwarya Rai Bachchan will finally play opposite Rajinikanth as heroine for the first time; the film is touted to be the biggest and most costliest film venture yet in India. It is being produced by Ayngaran International and Eros Labs and slated for theatrical release sometime in 2010.

[edit] Other work

Apart from acting in Tamil, Rajinikanth has acted in 173 movies, including Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi and Bengali. Rajinikanth made a foray into Bollywood with Andha Kanoon but couldn't make as much of an impact as he had in the south. He still made a few films in Hindi, like Chaalbaaz with Sridevi, Uttar Dakshin, Geraftaar and Hum. He also had a brief stint in Hollywood with the movie Bloodstone in 1988.

[edit] Awards and honours

Rajinikanth was named as one of the influential persons in South Asia by Asiaweek.^[23] He has won the Filmfare during his acting career.^[24]

Between 1977 and 2005, Rajinikanth received awards from several organizations, like Tamil Nadu State Government Award, Cinema Express, Filmfans Association, Filmfare etc., for his on-screen performances and off-screen contributions in writing and producing. He has received awards in the Best Actor category for his performance in the films Sivaji, Chandramukhi, Padayappa, Peddarayudu, Baasha, Muthu, Annamalai, Thalapathy, Velaikaran, Sri Raghavendra, Nallavanuku Nallavan, Moondru Mugam, Engeyo Ketta Kural, Aarilirunthu Arubathu Varai, Mullum Malarum and 16 Vayathinile. He received an award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Bhuvana Oru Kelvi Kuri. He has also received awards in Best Story Writer and Best Producer categories for Valli.

He has also received other honours such as Raj Kapoor Award (2007) from the Government of Maharastra, Padma Bhushan (2000)^[2] from Government of India.

In September 2007, Rajinikanth won the Best Actor award, given by the Government of Tamil Nadu for his role in the film Chandramukhi(2005). Recently, he was selected as the Indian Entertainer of the Year for 2007 by NDTV, beating out the likes of Shah Rukh Khan and Shilpa Shetty.

[edit] Politics

• 1995 - Announced that he is willing to support the Congress party after meeting Prime Minister Narasimha Rao.^[25] An opinion poll conducted by Kumudam magazine predicted that Congress with Rajinikanth support may win up to 130 seats in Tamil Nadu Assembly
• 1996 - Congress decided to align with AIADMK. Rajinikanth supported DMK-TMC alliance. The TMC used the Bicycle as their election symbol and used Rajinikanth's riding Bicycle in Annamalai movie in their posters. Rajinikanth uttered "Even God cannot save Tamilnadu if AIADMK returns to power".^[25]
• 1998 Rajinikanth supported the DMK-TMC alliance in parliamentary elections.^[26] SUN TV broadcast Rajini's speech throughout the day of the election. AIADMK-BJP alliance won around 30 out of 39 seats riding on sympathy wave generated by Coimbatore bomb blasts.
• 2002 - Rajinikanth undertook a day-long fast to protest Karnataka's decision to not to release Cauvery water to Tamilnadu.^[27] Announced that he would contribute 10 Million rupees towards interlinking of Indian rivers scheme.^[28] He met Prime Minister Vajpayee and many experts to canvass support for Interlinking Indian rivers scheme.

• 2004 - Supported BJP-AIADMK alliance in Parliamentary elections^[25] and quoted PMK's violence and BJP's support to interlinking of Indian rivers^[29] as reason for his support. But the alliance failed to win any seats.
• 2008 - Similar to the Cauvery fast in 2002, on April 4, Rajinikanth took part in a hunger strike organized by the entire Tamil film industry protesting Karnataka's opposition in the Hogenakkal water project and its result, the security of Tamils and the boycott of Tamil films in the state of Karnataka. Rajinikanth had warned Karnataka politians to make decisions with justice in his speech. In response, Kannada activist Vatal Nagaraj demanded an apology from Rajinikanth and threatened that he will not be allowed in the state of Karnataka and all his films will be boycotted.

[edit] Political Controversies

• He did not participate in the agitation sponsored by Tamil film artists in Neyveli protesting against Karnataka's refusal to release Cauvery water. Instead he participated in token fasting at Chennai. Bharathiraja who organized agitation attacked him vehemently and assigned bad intentions for his non participation in the agitation.^[30]
• PMK leader Ramadas condemned him for smoking and posing with Beedi's in his film Baba. He was criticised for spoiling Tamil youth by glorifying smoking and drinking. PMK volunteers attacked theatres which screened the movie Baba and usurped film rolls and burnt it.^[31] Famous film producers like M. Saravanan accused that cigarette smoking and drinking are shown in all movies and Rajini's film was chosen by the PMK leader because of his popularity in Vanniar areas which is considered PMK bastion.^{[citation needed]} To stop the controversies, Rajini announced that in his future films, he won't act in scenes involving him smoking or drinking. In keeping with his words, he didn't include a single scene of smoking or drinking in his recent films like Chandramukhi and Sivaji - The Boss.
• During the recent hunger strike organized by the Tamil film stars in support of the Hogenekkal drinking water project, he blasted Karnataka politicians over the water project. "I unequivocally condemn Karnataka for this reprehensible act of denying us what is rightfully ours. Those who are raising the issue are doing it for the elections. A national political party I respect is forcing me to wonder by its despicable acts whether there is (rule of law) in this country (guaranteed by) the Supreme Court and Who they will listen to." Without naming Yediyurappa, Rajni said "It was a cheap act by a leader of a big national party and an election gimmick. I do not approve it. The party’s (BJP) Tamil Nadu unit is keeping quiet", he added. Further, he appealed to the leaders like Kalaignar, Deve Gowda, Kumarasamy, Yediyuurappa, and Siddharamaiyya to not to flame up this issue for political gains. Rajinikanth requested the Tamil Nadu leaders including Kalaignar that, this issue should be nipped in the bud. Rajini urged the Karnataka politicians to speak the 'Truth' and warned them that the people would teach them lesson if they continue to play with the issue for political gains. "People are equal to God. They cannot be fooled and will not remain silent if you continue to act in such manner", thundered the Superstar.^[32]
• Leader of the Pro-Kannada group Karnataka Rakshana Vedike Vattal Nagaraj demanded an apology from Rajinikanth and threatened that he will not be allowed in the state of Karnataka and all his films will be boycotted for Rajinikanth's speech against Kannada politians.^[33]

[edit] Philanthropic activities

Rajinikanth is known for philanthropic activities. ^[17]

• He converted his Raghavendra Marriage Hall to a charitable trust to help the needy.^[34]
• He shared his income from the film "Arunachalam" with eight other people from the film industry as profit shares.^[35]
• He is planning to construct a new hospital and a new school on a piece of land near Chennai.^[36]
• He has distributed Rs 12 Lakhs as relief to the family members of the bereaved in the Coimbatore bomb blast.^[37]
• He had donated Rs 21 Lakhs to Tsunami Relief Fund, Government of TamilNadu during Jan 2005 in Person as a cheque to then Chief Minister Ms. J. Jayalalitha.
• Dance choreographer cum director cum actor Lawrence Raghavendra is running a home for differently abled people in Chennai where there are many residents. It has been reported by the actor that super star Rajinikanth has agreed to completely pay the food expenses of the centre. While talking to the media on this Lawrence said, “I am very thankful to Rajini sir. We all know about his generosity and benevolence but he has reiterated this by agreeing to foot the expenses of food bills of the centre irrespective of its strength."

[edit] Further reading

• The Name Is Rajinikanth (2008)

[edit] See also

• Rajinikanth filmography
• Sultan: The Warrior

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Rajinikanth at Paadal.com
• Rajinikanth at the Internet Movie Database