Superstar Rajinikanth and 7 unknown facts about him

Superstar Rajinikanth turned 70 on Saturday and his fans thronged his residence to celebrate. Many supporters and fans who gathered outside his home, wore T-shirts with brightly embossed image of the actor and his political catchphrases like 'Ippo Illaina Eppovaum Illai' (Now or never) as they appeared swept by political fervour with their favourite star's recent announcement of party launch.

Here are seven unknown facts about the superstar:

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. Rajinikant, 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.

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 judgement. 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.

4. He has two daughters  Sondarya and Aishwarya. He is closer to the former. When she  got divorced recently Rajinikant 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 learnt this from him, to never forget our roots. With our Dad there are no two faces. What you see  is what you he is.Wether 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. Rajinikanth in fact modeled his acting style  on Shatrughan Sinha and has openly acknowledged his debt to his senior.

6. The two people most surprised  by  Rajinikanth’s  decision to go into active politics are  Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrughan Sinha, because when they went into politics Rajinkanth 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 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.