Rajinikanth: Difference between revisions

Rajnikanth (Tamil: ரஜ்னிகாந்த், Marathi: रजनीकांत, Kannada: ರಜನೀಕಾಂತ್ ) , real name Sivaji Rao Gaekwad (Tamil: சிவாஜி ராவ் காயகவாட், Marathi: शिवाजीराव गायकवाड, Kannada: ಶಿವಾಜಿ ರಾವ್ ಗಾಯಕ್ವಾಡ್) (born December 12 1949 in Karnataka, India)^[1] is the highest paid actor ^[2] in India and a popular Tamil film actor.

Early life

Rajinikanth was born as the fourth child in the Marathi family of Ramabai and Ramoji Rao. He lost his mother at the age of five. He had his schooling at the Acharya Patashala in Bangalore and then at the Vivekananda Balak Sangh, a unit of the Ramakrishna Mission. Before starting his career in the film industry, he served as a bus conductor for Karnataka State Transport Corporation in Bangalore. It was during this time that he nurtured his acting interests.

Acting career

A friend helped him to join the Madras Film institute and Rajinikanth completed basic acting course in 1974 at the age of 25.^{[citation needed]}

He started his acting career in Kannada in the movie Kathaa Sangama (ಕಥಾ ಸಂಗಮ) directed by Puttanna Kanagal in 1976.

In Tamil, he started with playing supporting roles, beginning as a cancer patient in Apoorva Raagangal (1975), directed by K. Balachander, who assigned him his stage name Rajnikanth. After several villainous roles, his first positive role was Bhuvana Oru Kelvikkuri (1979), in which Rajnikanth played a failed lover in the first half and a do-gooder in the second.

After several hits in the Eighties, he played a Hindu saint in his 100th movie, Sri Raghavendra. Many others followed, among them dramas, comedies (notably 'Thillu Mullu') and, at the end of the eighties, action-oriented family entertainers like Velaikkaran and Manidhan.

Several movies during his nineties were successful, like Muthu or Basha. At 53, his Baba released amid fanfare. Although the film grossed enough to cover its budget, it was viewed as a miserable showing and fell short of market expectations accumulating heavy losses for the distributors. Rajnikanth himself returned the losses back to the distributors who had immense faith in him. The whole affair cost him dear in terms of repute of making a comeback. Hit hard by the turnout for that movie, he was reluctant to accept any new offers until he was satisfied the script was a sure seller.

And then came along his next release, the successful Chandramukhi, a remake of the Malayalam movie Manichitrathazhu.Chandramukhi was the most successful Tamil film ever made^{[citation needed]}. His next movie, Sivaji: The Boss, directed by S. Shankar, will be released in 2007.

Apart from Tamil, Rajnikanth has acted in over 160 movies, including Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam, Hindi and Bengali and which were mostly the remakes of his Tamil movies^{[citation needed]}. He has also acted in a Hollywood movie Bloodstone in 1988.

Rajnikanth was awarded the Padma Bhushan award in the year 2000 and was rated as one of the most influential persons in South Asia by Asiaweek. Rajnikanth has won the Filmfare Best Actor Award, South on 2 occasions. He is the highest paid actor in India^[3]and the second highest paid actor in Asia after Jackie Chan^{[citation needed]}

Rajinikanth was requested by his fans for a many years to stand in the State election of Tamil Nadu, but has constantly resisted entering politics directly.

Personal life

Rajinikanth married Latha on 26 February 1981. The wedding took place in the holy temple at Tirupathi. He has two daughters, Aishwarya and Soundarya. Aishwarya married actor Dhanush on 18 November 2004.

Rajinikanth has claimed tutelage from Ramakrishna Paramahamsa and Sri Raghavendra. Rajinikanth frequently makes pilgrimages to shrines in the Himalayas and Rishikesh.

Politics

• • 1995 Announced that he is willing to support the Congress party after meeting Prime Minister Narasimha Rao. An opinion poll conducted by Kumudam magazine predicted that Congress with Rajini support may win upto 130 seats in Tamilnadu Assembly
  • 1996 Congress decided to align with AIADMK. Rajinikanth supported DMK-TMC alliance. DMK-TMC alliance used Rajini photos extensively in political campaigning. The TMC used the Bicycle as their election symbol and used Rajiniganth's riding Bicycle in Annamalai movie in their posters. Rajini uttered "Even God cannot save Tamilnadu if AIADMK returns to power".
  • 1998 Rajinikanth supported the DMK-TMC alliance in parliamentary elections. 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 Rajini undertook one day fasting condemning Karnataka's decision to not to release Cauvery water to Tamilnadu. Announced that he would contribute 10 Million rupees towards interlinking of Indian rivers scheme. He met Prime Minister Vajpayee and many experts to canvass support for Interlinking Indian rivers scheme. Based on efforts taken by Rajinikanth and others, Prime minister announced committee to study River Interlinking scheme.
  • 2004 Supported BJP-AIADMK alliance in Parliamentary elections and quoted PMK's violence and BJP's support to interlinking of Indian rivers as reason for his support. But the alliance failed to win any seats.

Awards

Rajinikanth won many awards during his career for his acting skills.[2]

Tamilnadu Government

• 1978 Best Actor Mullum Malarum
• 1984 Kalaimamani
• 1989 MGR Award
• 1999 Best Actor Muthu
• 1999 Best Actor Padayappa

Central Government

• Padma Bhushan

Filmfare Awards

• 1984 Best Actor Nallavanukku Nallavan

Cinema Express Awards

• 1984 Best Actor Nallavanukku Nallavan
• 1985 Best Actor Raghavendra
• 1988 Best Achiever Blood Stone
• 1991 Best Actor Thalapathi
• 1992 Best Actor Annamalai
• 1995 Best Actor Baasha, Muthu

Screen Awards

• 1995 Best Actor Peaddarayadu

Punch Dialogues

Rajinikanth films are known for Punch Dialogues. Tamil Magazines even conducts competitions to predict punch dialogues for his forthcoming films.These Punch Dialogues are repeated many times in his movies. Most of these punch dialogues had significance to the political situation at the time of release of relevant movies.

Baadshah

"Naan oru murai sonna nooru murai sonna madhiri" நான் ஒரு முறை சொன்னால் நூறு முறை சொன்ன மாதிரி - If i tell once, it is like telling hundred times

Arunachalam

"Andavan Solran.Arunachalam Seiran" ஆண்டவன் சொல்றான், அருணாச்சலம் செய்றான் God says, Arunachalam does

Baba

"Katham. Katham" ஹதம் ஹதம் End End

"Asaindhal adikkiradhu unga policy. Asaiyama adikkiradhu Baba policy அசைந்தால் அடிக்கிறது உங்க பாலிசி அசையாம அடிக்கிறது பாபா பாலிசி" "Beating in stand-still posture is Baba Policy"

Padayappa

"Athigama asaipadara ambalaiyum, adhigama kopapadara pombalaiyum nalla vazhndhadha sarithiram illai"

"History says that greedy man and angry women cannot live peaceful life"

"En vazhi,thani vazhi" என் வழி; தனி வழி"My way is unique way"

Annamalai

"Naan solrathaiyum seiven.Sollathathiyum seiven".நான் சொல்கிறதையும் செய்வேன், சொல்லாததையும் செய்வேன் "I will do what I say, I will also do what I don't say"

Muthu

"Naan eppa varuven,eppadi varuvennu yarukkum theriyadhu,eppa varanumo appa correct aga varuven"

"No body knows when & how I will come,but I will come when I ought to come"

Philanthrophical Activities

He is known for philonthropical activities.

• His wife runs "The Ashram" school.
• Recently they converted "Raghavendra marriage hall into charity trust to help needy and poor".Rajini & his wife indulges in lot of charity works[3]
• He shared his "Arunachalam" film income with 4 people who helped him to come up in life.

Trivia

• Rajini wrote screenplay for Valli. He had sung songs in Mannan (Adikkuthu Kuliru) and also in Sivaji
• Rajini acted as Villain from 1975-1977
• He never acted in Marathi movie which is his mother tongue.
• His movie Muthu was dubbed in Japanese and became huge success in Japan.[4]

Controversies

• He did not participate in agitation sponsored by Tamil film artistes 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.[5]
• PMK leader Ramadoss condemned his Baba movie for his posture with cigarette.He criticised him for spoiling Tamil youth by glorifying smoking and drinking. PMK volunteers attacked theatres which screened Baba movie and usurped film roles and burnt it.[6].Famous film producers like AVM Saravanan accused that cigarette smoking/drinking are shown in all movies and Rajini movie is chosen by PMK because of his popularity in [Vanniar] areas which is considered PMK bastion.

Filmography

References

External links

• Rajinikanth at IMDb