Wikipedia:VideoWiki/Rajinikanth

Introduction
Shivaji Rao Gaekwad popularly known by his mononymous stage name Rajinikanth, is an Indian film actor who works primarily in Tamil cinema. After earning ₹26 crore (equivalent to ₹59 crore or US$8.5 million in 2018) for his role in Sivaji in 2007, he became the highest-paid actor in Asia after Jackie Chan at the time.

Early life
Rajinikanth was born as Shivaji Rao Gaekwad on 12 December 1950 in a Maratha family in Bangalore, Mysore State (present day Karnataka).

Completion of schooling
Upon completion of his school education, Rajinikanth performed several jobs including that of a coolie and carpenter, before getting a job in the Bangalore Transport Service as a bus conductor.



Madras Film Institute
He continued to take part in plays after the Kannada playwright Topi Muniappa offered him a chance to act in one of his mythological plays. He decided to take up an acting course in the newly formed Madras Film Institute after coming across an advertisement.

Support from a friend
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.

Career
Rajinikanth began his film career with the Tamil film Apoorva Raagangal in 1975, directed by K Balachander. He was cast in a small role as the abusive husband of the female lead played by Srividya.



Bhuvana Oru Kelvikkuri
S P Muthuraman experimented Rajinikanth in a positive role in Bhuvana Oru Kelvikkuri in 1977. The success of the film brought the duo together for 24 more films till the 1990s.



Superstar
Bairavi, directed by M Bhaskar, was the first Tamil film to cast Rajinikanth as a solo hero.



Amitabh Bachchan
Raijinikanth credited Hindi film star Amitabh Bachchan as his inspiration, began playing Amitabh Bachchan's roles in Tamil remakes of his films. The most successful of these were remakes of Salim-Javed films, such as Billa in 1980, Thee in 1981 and Mr Bharath in 1986.

Bollywood entry
By 1983, he was a popular actor across South Indian cinema, including Telugu and Kannada films. 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.



1990s
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. In 1991, he worked with Mani Ratnam in Thalapathi, which was heavily inspired by the Mahabharata.



Baashha
He joined hands with Suresh Krishna for Baashha in 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 demigod status among the masses.



Baba
After a brief pause, Rajinikanth starred in Baba in 2002, for which he had also written the screenplay. 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.



Chandramukhi
Two years later, Rajinikanth signed up for P Vasu's Chandramukhi in 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.



Sivaji
Directed by Shankar,Sivaji and was 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.



Enthiran
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.



Remuneration
Rajinikanth was paid a remuneration of ₹45 crore (equivalent to ₹75 crore or US$11 million in 2018) for the film.



Hospitalisation and return
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.



Mount Elizabeth Hospital
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.



Comeback
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 world cinema: black-and-white, colour, 3D and motion capture.



2.0
Rajinikanth acted in Shankar's  2 point 0 reprising the roles of Dr Vaseegaran and Chitti, alongside Akshay Kumar and Amy Jackson. It is the spiritual successor to the 2010 Tamil film Enthiran and it the most expensive Indian film made to date.



Darbar
As of April 2019, Rajinikanth is working with director AR Murugadoss in the film Darbar, which is scheduled to release in 2020.

Personal life
Rajinikanth married Latha Rangachari on 26 February 1981, a student of Ethiraj College for Women who interviewed him for her college magazine.



Children
The couple has two daughters named Aishwarya Rajinikanth and Soundarya Rajinikanth.



Aishwarya
Aishwarya married actor Dhanush on 18 November 2004 and they have two sons, Yathra and Linga.



Soundarya
Soundarya works in the Tamil film industry as a director, producer and graphic designer. She married industrialist Ashwin Ramkumar on 3 September 2010 and have a son Ved Krishna.

Awards and honours
Rajinikanth has received numerous awards for many of his films, mostly in Tamil. He received his first Filmfare Award for Best Tamil Actor in 1984 for Nallavanuku Nallavan. Later he received Filmfare Award nominations for his performances in Sivaji in 2007 and Enthiran in 2010.



Padma awards
He was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 2000 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2016 by the Government of India.



Centenary Award
In 2014, he was presented with the "Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the Year" at the 45th International Film Festival of India held at Goa.