Rajinikanth meaning the colour of the night has a remarkable down-to-earth persona. Because nobody pays him to act in real life.
Rajinikanth, 67, takes baby steps into politics and the baby will be named on Sankranthi. If we go for a war, we ought to win,” he said, underlining that it wasn’t valour that would see them through, but strategy.
In 2014, with several top leaders, Narendra Modi paying him visits that they insisted had nothing to do with politics.
In the past, political endorsements by Mr Rajinikanth has scored a blockbuster as well as flop results.
In 1996, Rajinikanth’s famous statement that “even God can’t save Tamil Nadu if Jayalalithaa became Chief Minister again” worked magic for the DMK-TMC coalition he endorsed. The combo swept polls and the AIADMK was routed.
But it has been a long journey for the son of a police constable, born Shivaji Rao Gaekwad on December 12, 1950. His parents were Maharashtrians living in Bangalore. His mother died when Rajinikanth was just five and the impoverished family struggled for years to make ends meet.
In 1973, Rajinikanth joined the Madras Film Institute. At the same time, a stage performance brought him to the attention of director K Balachander who recommended he learn Tamil and cast him in his very first role – as a cancer patient in 1975 Tamil movie Apoorva Raagangal.
