Rajini: from boss to beggar

As the grand receipts for Sivaji: The Boss pour in, Rajinikanth is in a small room in Chamrajpet, Bangalore. He is lying on the floor, on a hard mattress, with a ceiling fan rotating on top. This is the simple room of his oldest friend, Bahadur, who used to send him hundred rupees every month in the years Rajini was struggling in Madras. When he visits Bangalore these days, the Superstar spends a few days at his friend’s house, sleeping on the floor in a non air-conditioned room.

Rajini suggests to his friend that they go to the temple and give thanks. His friend is astonished and says, they will be mobbed. Rajini disguises himself as a 70 year old beggar and wanders through the temple, and goes unrecognised. But a Gujarati lady mistakes him for a beggar and hands him ten rupees. Rajini accepts it gracefully. Later, the lady thinks her eyes are playing tricks on her: the old beggar leaves a 100 rupee note on the altar and another one in the temple hundi. She realises her folly as she sees the beggar get into a posh car. She runs to the car and asks forgiveness, and for the ten rupees back so that she can donate it to the temple. But Rajini says he’ll keep the ten because, “every time God finds a way to remind me that I am nothing but a mere beggar at his altar.”



Bus number 10 A
He was born in Bangalore at the Vani Villas hospital to Ranoji and Rambai Gaekwad on 12 Dec 1950 at 9.45 pm. The first bus that Rajini was a conductor of was the 10 A Bus that ran from Majestic circle to Srinagar.

Rajini sleeps on Mount Road pavement
Borrowing a little money from his brother, he joins an acting school in Madras. On his first night in the city he has no place to sleep, and spends the night on the pavement outside the LIC building on Mount Road. Later, his classmates take pity on him and allow him to share their little accommodation in Aminjikarai: Arun Lodge, Room 28.

There were many days Rajini and his classmates starved because they had no money. One day they stood outside a fancy hotel on Mount Road and wondered if they would ever get to eat there. Many decades later, Rajini drove one of his classmates to the hotel, and asked him if he remembered the


hotel. “Do you own it now?” asked the classmate. Rajini smiled and said: “I own the whole building now.”



How he acquired his name
He gets an audition call from K. Balachander. The director sees promise in the struggling actor at once and offers him not one but three roles. Rajini is overjoyed. In one of the movies –Mundru Muduchu,- he learns that he will be acting with the legendary Kamal Haasan and Sri Devi. But he does not know Tamil. “We will dub your voice,” says KB, but my advise to you is to learn Tamil as quickly as you can. Learn Tamil and I will take you places.” Later, KB asks Rajini what screen name he’d like to use. “Sivaji Gaekwad, Sir” replies Rajini. “Oh no, that will not do, said KB, and asked him if he had seen his play, Major Chandrakanth.
“Of course, sir”.
“There are two characters in the play. One is Sreekanth and the other is Rajinikanth…Since I have already named someone else Sreekanth, I would like to call you Rajinikanth.”
“I take it as an honour, sir.”

His first dialogue
Rajini’s first dialogue is for KB’s Mundru Muduchu: he has to go towards Kamal Haasan and ask, “Is this Bhairavi’s house? I am Bhairavi’s husband.”
Called Superstar for the first time
Kalai Puli Dhanu released Bhairavi in a big way. Hoardings and ads all over the place, with the legend on the poster written broadly: ‘Watch Superstar Rajinkanth in Bhairavi’. Rajini was embarrassed to be called a superstar - this being the first time he has been described that way. He thinks only MGR and Sivaji can be called superstars. He phones Dhanu and says, Sir, why did you call me that?
Dhanu says: Because you are.

The kadavule kadavule scene
Kushbhoo: “Do you remember the famous ‘kadavule, kadavule scene? If you notice carefully, every time he said that I was grinning. I could not control my laughter. Even after the shots were canned, he would tease me with kadavule, kadavule. That was quite embarrassing.”

Aishwarya Rajinikanth’s crush on Silambarasan
He was her schoolmate. But it came to nothing. Later, she meets Dhanush at a preview show and is drawn to him.

Kamal talks Rajini out of it
At one point Rajini decides to renounce everything, take sanyas. He informs his wife, Lata, who is stunned. He goes to KB and declares he wants to give up acting. Later that day Kamal meets him and talks him out of it, saying he could remain an actor and balance spiritual quest with family and profession. Rajini listens to him.