Rajinikanth turns 71: Here are things you probably didn't know about the Tamil icon

Known for his mind-boggling stunts and action scenes, Rajinikanth can play any role effortlessly – if it’s a don, a common man, or a robot. From working as a bus conductor to striving hard to making it to the top, Rajinikanth’s journey is exceptionally inspirational. Born on 12 December 1950, the actor-turned-politician has turned 71. His fans took to social media platforms to share birthday wishes in the form of creative posters and videos. A day after his birthday, here’s a look at some of the things about Rajinikanth that raise him to the status of the beloved Thalaiva of the masses. 1. He started his career in acting in a supporting role in K Balachander’s Apoorva Raagangal in 1975. Kamal Haasan was the film’s hero. Rajinikanth, then named Shivaji Rao Gaekwad, approached Balachander for a role. Rajinikanth was a last-minute addition to the film. He played the heroine’s former husband and was immediately noticed. Also read:  Sooryavanshi, Satyamev Jayate 2, Antim: A queer reading of the testosterone-driven, hyper masculine cinem a 2. It was K Balachander who rechristened Shivaji Rao Gaekwad as Rajinikanth. Balachander had two other options in mind: Chandrakanth and Srikanth. Rajinikanth was a character in Balachander’s film Major Chandrakanth.

3. Rajnikanth has implicit faith in his wife Latha’s judgment. She is the first to watch all his films and she doesn’t hesitate in giving her opinion blunt and straight. If Mrs. R feels a film of her husband’s to be flop material chances are she is right. Rajinikanth always shows his films to his wife Latha first. Her opinion matters to Rajini and he watches her face carefully as she watches his films. Latha apart, Rajini doesn’t care about anyone’s opinion. He has never read a single review of any of his films 4. He has two daughters Sondarya and Aishwarya. He is closer to the former. When she got divorced recently Rajinikanth wept like a child. Speaking to me about her iconic father Sondarya had once said, “He is a very simple human being. He never forgot where he came from. As his children, my sister Aishwarya and I learned this from him, to never forget our roots. With our Dad, there are no two faces. What you see is what you he is. Whether it’s a fan or a producer, he treats them all the same. He has been down to earth all his life. He will never change. We his children try to emulate that trait of our Dad.” 5. Rajinikanth is very close to two people in the Hindi film industry: Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrughan Sinha. Rajinikanthiin fact modeled his acting style on Shatrughan Sinha and has openly acknowledged his debt to his senior. In fact, the iconic Tamil star has acknowledged Shatrughan Sinha as his “guru” and admitted that he often copied the ‘Shotgun’ style of mannered acting. Laughs Shatrughan Sinha, “Yes, he has always been very generous in his appreciation of me. He had called me his Guru. And when we worked together in K C Boakadia’s Asli Naqli in 1986 he jokingly told everyone he was the_naqli_ Shatrughan Sinha. That’s the greatness of this humble man.

6. The two people who were most surprised by  Rajinikanth’s decision to go into active politics and most relieved when he opted out are  Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrughan Sinha because when they went into politics Rajinikanth did his best to dissuade them. He advised both Mr. B and Mr. S to steer clear of politics. 7. His debut in Hindi cinema was in 1983’s Andha Kanoon was a hit.  But all his subsequent Hindi films like Meri Adalat (with Zeenat Aman), Gangvaa (with Shabana Azmi), Asli Naqli, Daku Haseena, were miserable flops. Moral of the story: if Rajnikanth could not break into Bollywood, the rest of the South Indian superstars stood no chance. 8. Rajinikanth’s friend adviser and closest archrival is Kamal Haasan. Rajinikanth has always considered Kamal Haasan his biggest rival and closest friend. In fact,  they may swear to be friends the fact is there has always been an undisclosed veneer of antagonism between them ever since Rajni played villain to Kamal’s hero in his debut film Apoorva Raagangal (made in Hindi as Ek Nayi Paheli). Though Rajni soon became a leading man and an iconic superstar, he never go over the fact that he was a villain in a Kamal starrer when he started out. Speaking of his friendship with Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan once said to me, “We’ve done ten films together, most of them were hits, though we did have failures. We’ve done three films for our mutual mentor K. Balachander. What’s more,   I’ve done guest roles in Rajni’s films. I’d do anything he asks me to, no question of refusing him… The war between the two fan clubs stopped only about 15 years ago. We both told them to stop after there were stray incidents of violence on both sides. Considering fans have killed each other for our distinguished predecessors MGR and Shivaji Ganesan our fans would be considered pacifists (laughs). I went ahead and set a new precedent. I turned my fan club into a social service organization… In one film he played a character that ages from 6 to 60.  That way we’ve crisscrossed paths on screen. When we were still in our ‘20s I asked Rajniji why he has to be so stylised on screen. He told me that’s the secret of his future success. I assured him my style would also be a winner. He turned around to say, ‘Fair enough. You do your thing and I’ll do my own.’ Rajni is a phenomenon. Both of us were young actors who started from scratch. He was the bus conductor with acting aspirations. I was the clapper boy who got the clap in my very film (Kamal Haasan played a character with venereal disease in his first adult role). We didn’t have fathers to make movies for us. But we had the same godfather K.Balachander. It’s quite strange, but our paths as actors were always intertwined. Initially, we were both typecast as villains. I got fed up with doing those and went away to Kerala to do Malayalam films. Then his career as a villain took off, and I returned to Chennai to pursue a career in Tamil cinema. We made our way up together. Rajiniji pointed out that though he’s four years my senior I’m his senior professionally and that he would take my advice about doing a film with me if there’s an occasion for us to star together. He said if we do a film together he won’t direct it. It has to be either me or someone else. It would be quite interesting to do a film with him. At a function, Rajni recalled an incident early in our careers when he was riding pillion on a MO ‘bike with me. When I sort of took a skid Rajni asked if I knew how to ride a MO ‘bike. I assured him even If I fell I wouldn’t let him fall. I was so touched when at a music function some years ago Rajni said, ‘That’s what happened in our career. He never let me fall. In 1983 when I wanted to leave everything behind it was Kamal who cajoled me back to the material world.’  I guess we’ll do a film together. We’ve been talking about it for five years. We’re worried about the expectations.”