|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| |
|
| |
|
| May
23 , 2008 |
|
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. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
 |
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
| Everything about Tamil movies,
Tamil Actors, Tamil Actresses, Tamil Cinema & Kollywood |
|
|
|
|
|
