BW: Such as?
Gayathri: The ones who were bus conductors with him in Bangalore, for instance.

BW: How did you get hold of all these people after so many years?
Gayathri: I did. Somehow I found them. Luck and persistence. And they were glad to speak to me.

BW: And how did you get so many important people to participate in the book? People such as the CM, Kamal Hassan, AVM Sarvanan and K.Balachander, to name a few.
Gayathri: Oh, they were glad to speak to me. Everyone asks me that – how did you get all those big people to write and talk in your book. The answer is simple: because it is about the Superstar – everyone is happy to talk about Rajini.

BW: Can we expect a lot of trivia about his film days?
Gayathri: I’ve avoided trivia. When people heard I was writing his story, a lot of industry trivia and stories came my way. First I put it in, then took it out. I did this because all that information was slowing down the pace of the book. I see Rajini as someone fast – talks fast, acts fast. The book also had to be fast – like him. So I’ve conceived it more like a screenplay than a book: always cutting to the chase.

BW: Have you spoken to his fans clubs?
Gayathri: Oh my God, they love him. They will give their lives for him. They had so much to say about what he meant to them.

BW: What next? The life of Kamal?
Gayathri: Perhaps.

BW: What was the most challenging thing about writing the book?
Gayathri: The writing. The actual process of telling the story of someone who is larger than life, a mythic figure, a legend. How do you capture it in words? There are so many sides to him: who he was, who he is, his failures, his deeply spiritual side…it was like a jigsaw puzzle that I had to put together.