HE

Quote - 'He doesn't need a visa to travel abroad, he just jumps from the tallest building in Chennai and holds himself in the air while the earth rotates.- source unknown'

He needs no introduction. He grew up as the youngest out of four siblings in Bangalore, Karnataka. His family originates from Jejuri, Pune Distrct. In his teens he worked as 'coolie' and later on worked as bus conductor in Karnataka State Transport Services. His friend Raj Bahadur encouraged him to get trained in acting. At that time his friend financially supported him for more than 2-3 years.

During his initial career, he mostly portrayed villainous roles. S. Muthuraman who he refers as his teacher and mentor, finally changed his image from ‘bad man’ to ‘hero’. Later they both worked together in more than 20 films. His acting career got a big boost during the period of late seventies and early eighties. Moreover, in late eighties he had decided to bid adieu to his acting career, until movie ‘Billa’ – (gangster) was released. Gradually, people started calling him ‘superstar’ because of his uninterrupted success from then-on, on silver screen. Now he is a megastar!

I remember I was in first year of my degree when his film ‘Baba’ was released. It was a disaster – simply because I thought people felt the movie lacked his style. He is such a massive hearted person that he himself bared all the incurred losses. Later around 2002, he again left acting. He then dedicated himself to the society, spiritualism, family and people. But again, he came back with a bang (three of those actually). Except Kuselan, his last three releases Chandramukhee, Shivaji – the boss & latest Endhiran (Robot) are biggest all time hits.  

We have a Japanese friend, ‘Mickey’ who stayed at my home as an exchange student. During a candid conversation with Mickey, I came to know that all 'his' films are most sought after in Japan, and he too is greatest fan of the silver screen god. I read once in the newspaper that he is the only celebrity who has most number of temples. People actually worship him.

I asked one my Tamil friends and one of his huge fans ‘why only he, is so admired out of such a big industry worldwide?’

He ecstatically said, “Its because of the way he carries himself - no one else does.”

Not satisfied with this short answer, I tried throwing a methodical question at him – "But look, Shahrukh Khan made 6 packs for a song, leave aside his multiple facial surgeries. Amir went ahead and made 8 packs. There is no point specially commenting for Salman Khan. Everyone knows him. Amitabh is so style cautious when he is in his late sixities. So you have any reason why this dark, bald, smallish looking ‘zabba-pyjama’ clad & aged looking common man is driving whole world fanatical?

His reply was, “that is what I am talking about da! All these heroes of the world do so much promotional activities before their film’s release. Have you seen Rajnikant begging people to watch his film? He is not required to. It is his humble attitude off the screen, his spiritualism and his down to earth attitude make him settle in people’s heart. It is also possible that people are aware of the fact that he has worked as a bus conductor, so they don’t hesitate offering him their best wishes all the time. Perhaps they can’t get enough of helping him reach to dazzling heights”

I agreed and said, “Possibly, he knows that things like fate exists. And that’s why he is so religious.”

He added, “He has got huge political influence. People love him when he visits various temples and he behaves like a person next door. People just cant get enough of him is also the truth – look for almost four decades the fellow is working as a young man.”

I laughed with convinced expression. Just then a new text message notification popped up on my cell phone.

The text message said, 

Rajnikanth does not answer natures call nature answers Rajnikanths call.