Rajnikanth Biography
Rajnikanth is popularly referred to as the Super Star in India. He sits on the throne of Tamil cinema empire as an actor and continues to have a colossal fan following. His real name is Shivaji Rao Gaekwad.
Rajinikanth, though being a Marathi by birth has not acted in a single Marathi movie till date. He was based in Karnataka and was very passionate about acting. He was doing various jobs before he joined films. It is interesting to note that, before becoming an actor, Rajinikanth was working as a bus conductor in Karnataka. During this time, he had performed many stage plays.
Later, he joined the Madras Film Institute and pursued a course in acting. It was director K. Balachander, who recognized his potential and offered him a role in his movie “Apoorva Ragangal”. This turned to be his debut. After this movie there was no looking back for this emperor. It was director K. Balachander, who renamed him as Rajinikanth. The star often refers to the director as his mentor.
Director S.P. Muthuraman, sculpted the actor in him. Initial roles played by the actor include many negative and short roles in movies such as “Bhuvana oru Kelvikuri”, “Mullum Malarum”, “Aarilirundhu Arubadhu varai”. He has played negative roles in the movies “16 Vayadhinile”, “Avargal”.
The ‘80s were the crucial period in his career. The star proved himself as a action hero and did variety of roles in movies such as “Billa”, “Pokkiri Raja”, “Thanikattu Raja”, “Naan Mahan alla”, “Moondru Mugam”. “Netrikan”, was one hit movie in which he played a double role of father and son. Other movies include “Padikadavan”, “Velaikaran”, “Dharmathin Thalaivan”, “Panakaran”, “Mr. Bharath”.
In the ‘90s all his movies started becoming commercial hits. They were “Annamalai”, “Ejaman”, “Veera”, “Muthu”, “Arunachalam”, “Padayappa”, “Chandramukhi” and the latest hit of his is “Sivaji-The Boss”.
He has been in the industry for over thirty years and has a huge, crazy fan following. It is an interesting thing to note that his fans refer him as “Thalaivar” and show their gratitude to the actor by performing special pujas and milk abishekams (felicitation using milk). He is married to Latha, who is the principal of the school Ashram. He has two daughters Aishwarya and Soundarya.
Rajnikanth is a great devotee of Lord Raghavendra and is a spiritually oriented. He has done a lot of services to the society and is highly influential in the society.