The Biggest moviestar of India - Rajnikanth !!!

sudheer poppa

Rajnikanth is India's biggest star. With his latest movie Chandramukhi already grossing $10 million, Rajni is now India's most highly paid actor. Rajni will be charging 50% of Chandramukhi's gross revenue as his fee. With Chandramukhi, Rajni has overtaken the likes of Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan and his immediate competitor, Chiranjeevi. Chiranjeevi's Tagore was considered the biggest regional language hit so far.

Read more

Some how I personally have liked him since my younger childhood. Given the fact that I see about 5 Indian movie in a decade, that is not much a recommendation

__________________
We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools - MLK

Pic Page 1
Pic Page 2
When my life changed over a week

ploink

Interesting. I'll have to see some non-Hindi flicks whilst in the south. It's mostly been the likes of Sharukh Khan, Saif Ali Khan, Salman Khan (What's with the "Khans"?), Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan, and Amitabh Bachchan to me.

__________________
But rather, ten times rather, die in the surf, heralding the way to that new world, than stand idly on the shore! -Florence Nightingale

Hyderabadi

Rajnikanth was born Shivaji Rao Gaekwad (Maratha?) and was a bus-conductor in Bangalore till went to Madras and became a Tamil movie star. A true rags-to-riches story. In south India, particularly Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh one really has to see to believe the fan following 'super' stars such as Rajnikanth and Chiranjeevi have. There are even temples built, movie bill-boards bathed in milk and garlanded, poojas performed.....A new movie release usually results in riots and god forbid, a couple of 'fans' dying, while trying to obtain tickets or simply watching the 'entry' of the 'hero' on the screen and having a heart attack. It's quite crazy.

On the other hand these 'Fan Associations' not Clubs, do a lot of good work too, donate blood,feed the poor etc., on their star's birthday, contribute to disaster relief efforts and such. The do have considerable political clout in some pockets.

crvlvr

Some more Trivia :

* His fans conduct poojas on huge cutouts of Rajnikant just before the launching of his films to ensure his success. His fans collect opening day ticket stubs of his movies and even buy them at exhorbitant prices.

*Directors cannot 'kill off' his character in the movie for fear that the theatre will be burnt down to prevent future runnings of the movie by his 'crazed' fans who consider him almost a god.

* He is said to "explode like a tiger on screen".

...move over Tom Cruise

ddevadatta

I remember when Rajinikanth just started his movie career when I was a lad in Madras. Can't tell ya the name of the movie but the rape scene he was involved in was choreographed alkong side the cutting of a coconut. Any one know thge name of that movie.

As someone already mentioned he was a bus conductor. By the way my former pricipal YG Parsathaty had a son in the movies. he was upcoming then in the early 1980's but hear he became a star. Anyone know of him as well.

__________________
Ayurvedic cure for an Indian headache

Paagla Dashu

I like actors who have made it completely based on their own abilities and not because they are from a filmi family or the son of a producer or actor:

Dilip Kumar - Fruit seller in Lahore/Peshawar
Shah Rukh Khan - Middle Class Family in Delhi
Mithun Chakraborty - Lower Middle Class family in Calcutta
Rajni Kant - Bus Conductor

Only exception to that list (for me) is Amitabh Bachchan - he was not from a filmi family either but his father was a famous poet and the family was well-connected. His girl-friend was a superstar in her own right as well (before he had his break).

-m2-

Amma looks pretty big too, at least in the pictures I've seen -- but then she's made the leap to politics so I guess her film career is over

Attached Thumbnails

 

SHIMLA

You can add Dev Anand, Dharmendra and Kadar Khan to that list. All three had non-filmi backgrounds but made it big in Bollywood.

Rajnikant had a style of his own and a good screen presence. Only in one movie have the three contemporary superstars of Indian cinema - The Big B, Kamal Hassan and Rajnikant - come together; in "Geraftar". The movie was crap, but it was wonderful seeing the three of them together.

__________________
Whoever said money can't buy happiness didn't know where to shop !

byronic

I guess Rajinikanth is the last true filmi hero that can elicit true and actual hysteria and god like devotion. Amitabh Bachchan at one time posessed such fervent devotion in the 1970s and 80s. Shahrukh Khan comes a little close, but not quite.
Historically filmi heroes have had fanatical followings. Rajesh Khanna in the late 1960s and early 1970s was the first true movie superstar. When Khanna married in the early 1970s its documented that woman committed suicide in grief.
When Amitabh Bachchan had an on the set movie accident that almost killed him, the whole country went into shock. Spontanious shrines were erected for his recovery. A rickshaw driver in Calcutta spent his life savings to travel to Bombay to sit outside the hospital Amitabh was in, just to pray for him.
I think there was a Rajinikanth film where he did die. On opening day his angry fans burnt down the theater in protest.
Its because of this kind of devotion that I am obsessed with Indian Popular film. Stuff like this just doesn't happen in Hollywood anymore.

__________________
http://www.flickr.com/photos/byronic501/

byronic

I wanna say that I think this is what happened, I am not certain for sure. Does anyone know if this really did happen, or is it just a story??

.

docgirl2005

Since my husband was born in TN (although he's originally from AP), I started watching Tamil movies with him. Some movies particularily Mani Ratnam and Viswanath films from the 1980s are really amazing. Revathi in Mouna Ragam..wow just brilliant. But I just cant stand Rajnikant. A opinion I keep to myself while visiting Tamilnadu if I want to be safe ...LOL

True Story: When husband and I were in med college, we went to Marina beach on Sunday afternoons to chill out and chat. We were in love, but were very decent "in terms of indian decency" and kept to ourselves. We would sit on the beach, stare at the sunset and plan our lives together and dream of the day we could get married. After getting our parents approval we eventually did marry

One particular Sunday, a small kid (no more than 6-7 years old) came by begging for money. We gave him a 5 rupee coin and hoped he would leave us alone. He did not, he actually started throwing sand in my face and because of the wind it started stinging my eyes. We then gave him another few rupees and still he wouldnt leave us alone. By that point we were upset of course and decided to get up and go back to college. The kid followed us up to the auto stand and was pulling my salwar khameez dupatta! My husband remarked that he didnt want to reprimand the kid because even though he was a kid, he probably had a bunch of "annas" waiting to take over.. finally after we couldnt handle him any longer, my husband remarked "Why are you bothering us? Why dont you go and study and do something good in your life?" The kid looked straight up at my husband (who is 6'2 and a bodybuilder by the way) and looked straight into his eyes without hesitation and said "BASHA..." --Basha the title of a Rajni movie where he goes against the establishment and the non masses.

Yea it might be funny to everyone out there, but Rajnikant influences his fans in the most horrible way. They are told he is "one of them" a fellow masses type of guy a autowallah In fact Rajnikant is not, his favorite haunt is the Taj Coromanndel and Chola Sheraton. I have actually seen him, he sat next to us as we dined at Peshwari in Chola. Its sad really, he brainwashes the masses to believe hes one of them, and instead of giving a message of positivity he sends a message to his followers to disrespect other human beings. Did you ever notice all the villains in his movies are rich fair guys? Give me a break, what a dumb generalization just to fit the looks of the fan base. But I do admit he plays into his fan base and for that he's quite a genuis. but yukk is my opinion...

Next time I visit Madras, I hope I dont get killed for this post, I wouldnt put it past his fans..ehh...

SHIMLA

I believe Dilip Kumar and Shammi Kapoor too were superstars in their heyday; and had a great fan following. Jeetendra cannot be termed a superstar but hats off to him, he held out valiantly during the Big B's reign and had his own loyal none-too-small fan club.

lonelyaztec

Rajini Oru Tharava Sonna, Nooru Tharava Sonna Mathiri.

----------------------------------

Meaning "If Rajini says it ones, it equal to saying it 100 times".

__________________
Aztec

My photoblog

concoran

While Rajanikanth is a super duper star, I am unwilling to accept him as 'the biggest movie star in India'. After all, how do you describe 'biggest movie star'? Is it based on money profitted, or money spent on a movie, how how many folks showed up at theaters?

I have seen a couple of his films, and they are mediocre, to say the best, in terms of quality. Flipping cigarettes is sometimes fine and is fun, but not always.

Movies in south seem to be heavily based more on personalities than they should be. If you want govern your state as a politician, you better start your career in movies, and not in politics is south, especialy in TN and folks little north.

sudheer poppa

Title was actually a bit sarcastic

He is one of the persons about whom there is so much of stories making rounds, from an illicit womaniser to a great humanitarian.

As a small kid I felt his movies had a superman charm to it. The poor masses grow up seeing this cult status around them and normally get influenced into the same. The poor man who does not have much an entertainment in his life, would love to see one of them do the things he has not imagined in the silver screen and feel nice about it. At the same time, some simple things like throwing cigarrette into mouth is stuff they can immediatly relate to....

And on the dialogues, they sure are catchy. In lines of "I'll be back" .....

There was a joke making rounds (not sure if it is true) that in one of his movies, he had only one bullet and two villians to kill. So our man keeps a blade (razor) on the edge of the gun and shoots to kill both the villians.