User:Dilshad Ahmad Abbasi/Rajinikanth

Rajinikanth (Birth Name: Shivaji Rao Gaekwad;born: 12 December 1950) is an Indian film actor, media personality, and cultural icon. Rajinikanth struggled as an impoverished child. He began acting in plays while working in the Bangalore Transport Service as a bus conductor. In 1973, he joined the Madras Film Institute to pursue a diploma in acting. Following his debut in K. Balachander's National Film Award-winning Apoorva Raagangal (1975), his acting career commenced with a brief phase of portraying antagonistic characters in Tamil films. After establishing himself as a lead actor in a number of commercially successful films, he began to be referred to as a "superstar" and has since continued to hold a matinée idol status in the popular culture of Tamil Nadu. His mannerisms and stylised delivery of dialogue in films contribute to his mass popularity and appeal.

After earning inr 260000000 for his role in Sivaji (2007), he became the highest paid actor in Asia after Jackie Chan. While working in other regional film industries of India, Rajinikanth has also appeared in the cinemas of other nations, including that of the United States. As of 2014, Rajinikanth has won six Tamil Nadu State Film Awards—four Best Actor Awards and two Special Awards for Best Actor—and a Filmfare Best Tamil Actor Award. In addition to acting, he has also worked as a producer and screenwriter. Apart from his film career, he is also a philanthropist, spiritualist,and serves as an influence in Dravidian politics.The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 2000. At the 45th International Film Festival of India (2014), he was conferred with the "Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the Year".

Early life
Rajinikanth was born on 12 December 1950, in a Marathi family to his mother Ramabai, a housewife, and Ramoji Rao Gaekwad, a police constable at Vanivilas Women and Children Hospital in Bangalore, Mysore State, – present day Karnataka. He was named Shivaji Rao Gaekwad after Chhatrapati Shivaji, a Maratha warrior King, and was brought up speaking Marathi and Kannada. Rajinikanth's ancestors hailed from a village called Mavdi Kade Pathar, a part of the Purandar taluka of the present-day Pune district, Maharashtra. He is the youngest of four siblings in a family consisting of two elder brothers, Satyanarayana Rao & Nageshwara Rao and a sister, Aswath Balubai. After his father's retirement from work in 1956, the family moved to the suburb of Hanumanthanagar, near Hosur and built a house there. When he was five, he lost his mother.

At the age of six, Rajinikanth was enrolled at the "Gavipuram Government Kannada Model Primary School" where he had his primary education. As a child, he was studious and "mischievous" with a great interest in cricket, football and basketball. It was during this time his brother enrolled him at the Ramakrishna Math, a Hindu monastery set up by Ramakrishna Mission. In the math, he was taught Vedas, tradition and history which eventually instilled a sense of spirituality in him. In addition to spiritual lessons, he also began acting in plays at the math. His aspiration towards theatre grew at the math and was once given an opportunity to enact the role of Ekalavya ' s friend from the Hindu epic Mahabharata. His performance in the play received praise from the audience and Kannada poet D. R. Bendre in particular. After sixth grade, Rajinikanth was enrolled at the Acharya Pathasala Public School and studied there till completion of his pre-university course. During his schooling at the Acharya Pathasala, he spent a lot of time acting in plays. In one such occasion, he performed the role of the villainous Duryodhana in the play Kurukshetra.

Upon completion of his school education, Rajinikanth continued to perform various jobs in the cities of Bangalore and Madras, including that of a coolie and carpenter, and finally ended up being recruited in the Bangalore Transport Service (BTS) as a bus conductor. He began to take part in stage plays after Kannada playwright Topi Muniappa offered him a chance to act in one of his mythological plays. During the time, he came across an advertisement issued by the newly formed Madras Film Institute which offered acting courses. Though his family was not fully supportive of his decision to join the institute, his friend and co-worker Raj Bahadur motivated him to join the institute and financially supported him during this phase. During his stay at the institute, he was performing in a stage play and got noticed by Tamil film director K. Balachander. The director advised him to learn to speak Tamil, a recommendation that Rajinikanth quickly followed.

Early career (1975–77)
Rajinikanth started Bollywood as his home production film company in 1970 later in 1975 it to Mumbai and he will be paid by 10% for every Hindi movie making also began his cinematic career through the Tamil film Apoorva Raagangal (1975). Balachander, who gave Rajinikanth a relatively small role as an abusive husband of Srividya. The film was controversial upon release as it explored relationships between people with wide age differences. However, it received wide critical acclaim as it went on to win three National Film Awards including the award for the Best Tamil Feature at the following year ceremony. A review from The Hindu noted that, "Newcomer Rajinikanth is dignified and impressive". He followed that with Katha Sangama (1976), an experimental film made by Puttanna Kanagal in the new wave style. The film was a portmanteau of three short stories had Rajinikanth playing a small character in the last segment where he appears as a village ruffian who rapes a blind woman in the absence of her husband. His next release was Anthuleni Katha, a Telugu film directed by Balachander. A remake of his own Tamil film Aval Oru Thodar Kathai (1974), had Rajinikanth playing a pivotal role for the first time in his career. In the subsequent films, he continued to perform a series of negative roles mostly as a womaniser. In Moondru Mudichu—the first film to feature him in a prominent role—he plays a character that "blithely row[s] away" when his friend drowns accidentally into the lake only to fulfill his desire to marry the former's girlfriend. His style of flipping the cigarette made him popular among the audience. His final release of the year Baalu Jenu, yet again saw him performing a role which troubles the female lead. He followed that with similar roles in Avargal, and 16 Vayadhinile. In 1977, he accepted his first-ever lead role in the Telugu film Chilakamma Cheppindi. Though Rajinikanth always refers to K. Balachander as his mentor, it was S. P. Muthuraman who revamped his image. Muthuraman first experimented with him in a positive role in Bhuvana Oru Kelvikkuri (1977), as a failed lover in the first half of the film and a protagonist in the second half. The success of the film brought the duo together for 24 more films till the 1990s. The year saw Rajinikanth playing supporting roles in majority of the films with few of them being "villainous". In Gayathri he was cast as pornographer who secretly films his relationship with his wife without the knowledge of her, while in Galate Samsara he played the role of a married man who develops an affair with a cabaret dancer. All in all, he had 15 of his films released during the year, much higher than the previous years.

Experimentation and breakthrough (1978–89)
In 1978, Rajinikanth went on to star in 20 different films across Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada. His first film of the year was P. Madhavan's Shankar Salim Simon. Following that he was seen in the Kannada film Kiladi Kittu co-starring Vishnuvardhan, who was then a leading actor in Kannada. His next release Annadammula Savaal saw him playing the second lead with Krishna. Rajinikanth had reprised his role in the Kannada original. He then played an important role in Aayiram Jenmangal which was touted to be a supernatural thriller. He then appeared as a prime antagonist in Maathu Tappada Maga, which happened to be his 25th release. Bairavi released in the same year was the first Tamil film to cast Rajinikanth as a main hero. It was in this film he earned the sobriquet "Superstar". S. Thanu who was one of the film's distributor placed a cut-out of Rajinikanth over a height of 35 ft. His next appearance Ilamai Oonjal Aadukirathu, a quadrangular love story made by C. V. Sridhar, saw him playing the role of a man who sacrifices his love for his friend, played by Kamal Haasan. The film's success prompted Sridhar to remake the film in Telugu and thus ended up directing Vayasu Pilichindi where the original cast in the Tamil film was retained. His next film Vanakkatukuriya Kathaliye has an introductory song to mark his entry, a trend that would soon catch up with his later films. Mullum Malarum that released during the same period received critical acclaim. The film marked the directional debut of J. Mahendran, had the screenplay adapted from a novel of the same name published in Kalki. It eventually won the Filmfare Award for Best Tamil Film and Rajinikanth a special prize for Best Actor at the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards. Following this, he made a foray into Malayalam cinema through the fantasy film Allauddinum Albhutha Vilakkum which was based on a story from Arabian Nights. The same year, he acted in Dharma Yuddam, in which he played a mentally-ill person taking revenge for his parents' death. He then co-starred with N. T. Rama Rao in Tiger. With the completion of Tiger, Rajinikanth had acted in 50 films over a period of four years and spanning across four languages. Some of the popular films that also released during this period are the youthful entertainer Ninaithale Inikkum, the Tamil–Kannada bilingual Priya, and the Telugu film Amma Evarikkaina Amma. Priya, based on a detective novel by Sujatha Rangarajan had the distinction of being the first film of Rajinikanth to be shot mostly outside India, mainly in Southeast Asia.

By 1980, he became a popular actor in the South Indian cinema. During this phase of his career, Rajinikanth abruptly chose to quit acting, but was coaxed back. He made a comeback with the Tamil film Billa, which was a remake of the Bollywood film Don (1978). It had Rajinikanth playing dual roles and eventually became his first ever commercial success. His pairing with Sridevi continued in Johnny where he was once again cast in a double role. In 1981, he appeared in Garjanai which was shot simultaneously in Kannada and Malayalam, making it his last film in those two languages till date. He also starred in Murattu Kaalai which was a commercial success. In K. Balachander's first home production, Netrikan, he performed dual roles as a womanising father and a responsible son. He acted in Thillu Mullu directed by K. Balachander, which was Rajinikanth's first full-length comedy. He agreed to it solely due to the strong suggestion by his mentor that he should do non-commercial roles, to break the stereotyped action-hero mould by which he was getting famous at the time. In 1982, he starred in Pokkiri Raja and Thanikattu Raja. Moondru Mugam had Rajinikanth playing three roles for the first time.

In 1983, he starred in his first Bollywood film, Andha Kanoon, alongside Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini. The film went on to become one of the highest grossing films of that time. His 1984 film, Naan Mahaan Alla, was directed by Muturaman and produced by K. Balachander. He acted in his first cameo role in the film Anbulla Rajinikanth. He played a triple role in John Jani Janardhan. His performance in Nallavanuku Nallavan earned him a Filmfare Best Tamil Actor Award. In his 100th film, Sri Raghavendra (1985), he played the Hindu saint Raghavendra Swami. His major success in Hindi films was his 101st film Bewafai. In 1985, the film Bewafai, with Rajesh Khanna as the lead hero and Rajnikanth in negative role, released and became asuccess and grossed Rs 11.95 crore at the box office that year.

In the second half of the 1980s, Rajinikanth acted in commercially successful films like Naan Sigappu Manithan (1985), Padikkathavan (1985), Mr. Bharath (1986), Velaikaran (1987), Guru Sishyan (1988) and Dharmathin Thalaivan (1988). In 1988, he made his only American film appearance in Bloodstone, directed by Dwight Little, in which he played an English-speaking Indian taxi driver. Rajinikanth finished the decade with films including Rajadhi Raja, Siva, Raja Chinna Roja and Mappillai while also starring in a few Bollywood productions. Raja Chinna Roja was the first Indian film to feature live action and animation.

Commercial Stardom (1990–2001)
By the 1990s, Rajinikanth established himself as a commercial entertainer. Almost all the films released during this period were highly successful at the box office. He began the decade with Panakkaran (1990). His stint with Bollywood continued since the past decade as he went on to star in more Hindi films. Hum released in 1991 saw him doing the second main lead with Amitabh Bachchan became an inspiration for Badsha. In 1991, he worked with Mani Ratnam in Thalapathi, which was heavily inspired by the Mahabharata. in which he co-starred with actor Mammooty; the film dealt with the friendship between two unknown characters based on Karna and Duryodhana, respectively, and was set in a more contemporary milieu and was both critically acclaimed and successful upon release. He went on to appear in remakes of films from other languages, mostly from Hindi and Telugu. Annamalai, which released in 1992, was yet another friendship centric film and was loosely based on the 1987 Bollywood film Khudgarz. Mannan, directed by P. Vasu, also became a box-office success. Rajinikanth wrote his first screenplay for the film Valli (1993), in which he also made a special appearance. He also starred in the film Yejaman, in which he played the role of Vaanavaraayan, a village chieftain. His romantic-comedy Veera (1994) was controversial for its climax but went on to become one of the highest grossing films in 1994.

He joined hands with Suresh Krishna for Baasha (1995), which emerged as an industry record, and is routinely touted by fans and critics alike as a major-hit, as the film elevated him from being just another very popular actor to nearly a demigod status among the masses. He made a cameo in Peddarayudu for his friend Mohan Babu and also helped him in obtaining the remake rights. The same year, he acted in yet another gangster film, Aatank Hi Aatank with Aamir Khan which was also his last Hindi film in a major role till date. His film Muthu was another commercial success, directed by K. S. Ravikumar and produced by K. Balachander, and became the first Tamil film to be dubbed into Japanese, as Mutu: Odoru Maharaja. The film grossed a record US$1.6 million in Japan in 1998 and was responsible for creating a large Japanese fan-base for the actor. Muthu's success in Japan led American news magazine Newsweek to comment in a 1999 article that Rajinikanth had "supplanted Leonardo DiCaprio as Japan's trendiest heartthrob". During a visit to Japan in 2006, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh acknowledged the success of Muthu in the country during a speech, justifying the positive relationship between the two nations. He also entered Bengali cinema through Bhagya Debata, which released at the end of 1995. 1997's Arunachalam was another commercial success. Rajinikanth released his last film of the millennium with Padayappa (1999) which went on to become a blockbuster success. It starred Ramya Krishnan and Soundarya, the former who was critically acclaimed for her performance. It was also the last, prominent role for veteran Tamil actor Sivaji Ganesan.

Struggles, resurgence and acclaim (2002–10)
After a brief gap, Rajinikanth starred in Baba in 2002, for which he had also written the screenplay. Released with much fanfare and hype at the time, the film featured a story revolving around the reforming of a gangster, who is revealed to be the reincarnation of the Hindu saint Mahavatar Babaji, and fights against political corruption. It fell short of market expectations and the high bids reportedly translated to heavy losses for the distributors. Rajinikanth himself repaid the losses incurred by the distributors. The film was received with comments such as "the bloom was off the rose" and that "the gold does not glitter any more". Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) leader S. Ramadoss condemned him for smoking and posing with beedis in the film. He was criticised for spoiling the Tamil youth by glorifying smoking and drinking. PMK volunteers attacked the theatres which screened the film and usurped film rolls and burnt it.

Two years later, Rajinikanth signed up for P. Vasu's Chandramukhi (2005), a remake of the Malayalam film Manichitrathazhu. Upon release the film was highly successful at the box-office, and in 2007 it set the record of being the longest running Tamil film. Chandramukhi was also dubbed in Turkish and German as Der Geisterjäger and released in the respective nations. Following Chandramukhi's release, it was reported that AVM Productions were set to produce a film directed by Shankar starring Rajinikanth—the largest collaboration yet for a Tamil film. The film was titled Sivaji and released in the summer of 2007, following two years of filming and production. It became the first Tamil film to be charted as one of the "top-ten best films" of the United Kingdom and South Africa box-offices upon release. Rajinikanth received a salary of inr 260000000, for his role in the film, which made him the second highest paid actor in Asia after Jackie Chan. During the production of Sivaji, Soundarya Rajinikanth announced her intention of producing a computer-generated imagery film starring an animated version of her father titled Sultan: The Warrior. The film was set for release in 2008, however it entered development hell and its development status would become unknown over the next few years.

He worked with P. Vasu again for Kuselan, remake of the Malayalam film Kadha Parayumbol which was made simultaneously in Telugu as Kathanayakudu, in which Rajinikanth played an extended cameo role as himself, a film star in the Indian cinema, and as a best friend to the film's protagonist. According to Rajinikanth, the film somewhat narrated his early life. The film, however, performed poorly at box offices and led to many distributors incurring major losses. Rajinikanth also stated that he would work with Pyramid Saimira again to compensate for Kuselan.

Rajinikanth worked again with Shankar for the science fiction film, Enthiran. The film was released worldwide in 2010 as the most expensive Indian film ever made, ultimately becoming the second highest-grossing film in India of its time. Rajinikanth was paid a remuneration of inr 450000000 for the film. The film's success lead to the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad to use the film as a case study to analyze the business of cinema and its success story in a post-graduate elective management course called Contemporary Film Industry: A Business Perspective. The course would also study Muthu.

Hospitalisation and return (2011–present)
In January 2011, Rajinikanth was slated to appear in Rana, a period film to be produced by Soundarya Rajinikanth and directed by K. S. Ravikumar, who would work with the actor for a third time. During the principal photography of the film on 29 April 2011, he suffered a mild foodborne illness on the sets, which lead to vomiting, dehydration, and exhaustion. He was treated at St. Isabel's Hospital for a day before being discharged. Five days later, he was rushed to the same hospital again after suffering from breathlessness and fever. He was diagnosed with bronchitis and was kept at the hospital for a week, while also spending a few days in an intensive care unit. Several conflicting reports of discharge dates arose, as well as claims of Rajinikanth's health deteriorating, which were continuously denied by Latha Rajinikanth. By this time, CNN-IBN reported that "Rajinikanth dead" was one of the top trends on Twitter and most searched term on Google in India. Two days after his last discharge, Rajinikanth was admitted to the Sri Ramachandra Medical College and Research Institute on 16 May 2011 for recurring respiratory and gastrointestinal problems. The hospital maintained that Rajinikanth was in stable condition and showed positive response to treatment. It was widely reported that he required a kidney transplantation, which was later denied by Dhanush. On 21 May 2011, Aishwarya Rajinikanth released a photo of her and Rajinikanth in his hospital ward, both posing with a thumbs signal, responding to fans' negative reaction to news reports. The hospital restricted unauthorised visitors. Rajinikanth's brother, Sathyanarayana Rao Gaikwad, reported that the cause of the sudden illness was due to stress from rapid weight-loss and changes in diet, as well as withdrawal of alcohol consumption and smoking cessation. After addressing fans in a 4-minute digitally recorded voice message to the media, Rajinikanth, under the advice of Amitabh Bachchan, travelled from Chennai to Singapore with his family on 21 May 2011, where he was to undergo further treatment for nephropathy at Mount Elizabeth Hospital. After spending over two weeks at the hospital, he was finally discharged on 15 June 2011 and continued to recuperate in Singapore, before returning to Chennai on 13 July 2011.

Despite several failed attempts to restart Rana upon his return, Rajinikanth reprised his Enthiran character, Chitti, in the Bollywood science-fiction film Ra.One (2011) in a guest appearance alongside Shahrukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor. In November 2011, it was decided that Rana would be shelved to make way for a new project with Rajinikanth, titled Kochadaiiyaan. The motion capture film, which is the first of its kind in India, was released in 2014 to positive reviews. Kochadaiiyaan, and the 3D release of Sivaji in 2012, made Rajinikanth the first Indian actor to have appeared in four different forms of cinema: black-and-white, colour, 3D and motion capture. Following the completion of Kochadaiiyaan, Rajinikanth began work in Ravikumar's next directorial venture, titled Lingaa. The film was released on 12 December 2014, coinciding with his birthday, and received mixed reviews from critics.