Movies : Actors :

Rajnikant

Rajnikant is the super star of Tamil cinema. His original name is Shivaji Rao Gaekwad. He is the highest earning actor of Tamil film industry. He has also worked in Hindi, Telugu, Kannada and even an English film.

Early Life
Rajnikant was born into a Marathi family in Karnataka on December 12, 1949. Before his entry to films, he served as a Bus conductor in the Karnataka State Transport Corporation in Bangalore. He became interested in acting during this time. Then he moved to Chennai and joined the Madras Film Institute.

Career as an Actor
After completing his course in the Film Institute, he started acting in films. He was given a small role in the film Apoorva Ragangal by the famous Director K. Balachander in 1975. He has acted in many villainous roles. His first positive role was in the film Bhuvana Oru Kelvikkuri. His major films include Moondru Mudichu, Anthuleni Katha, Pathinaru Vayathinile, Gayatri, Chilakamma Cheppindi, Avargal, Ilamai Oonjal Aadukirathu, Bhairavi, Shankar Saleem Simon, Thai Illamal Naan Illai, Johnny, Dharma Yuddham, Alavuddinum Athbutha Vilakkum, Murattu Kaalai and Johnny/Jani.

Rajanikant had many hits in 1980s also. Some of them are Ellaam Un Kairaasi, Billa, Anbukku Naan Adimai, Thillu Mullu, Kazhagu, Garjanai, Black Cobra, Pokkiri Raja, Agni Sakshi, Sivappu Sooriyan, Moondru Mugham, Thambikku Entha Ooru, Kai Kodukkam Kai, Anbulla Rajanikant, John Jani Janardhan and Unn Kannil Neer Vazhindal . His 100th movie was Sri Raghavendra in which he acted as a saint.

Movies in 1990s and 2000s
Several of his movies in the 90s were successful. Films like Mannan, Thalapathi, Pandian, Annamalai, Valli, Uzhaippaali, Veera, Muthu, Badsha, Arunachalam and Padaiyappa were superhits. He completed his 25 years in films in the year 1999. He reduced the number of movies towards the beginning of 2000. His comeback film was Baba which was released amid fanfare in 2002. But the film was not upto expectations. He became extremely careful in selecting his roles after the failure of Baba. Rajanikant returned to silverscreen in 2004 after three years in the film Chandramukhi. The film was a great success.

Upcoming Movie
Rajnikant movie Sivaji will be released in 2007. The movie will be directed by S.Shankar.

Other Language Movies
Rajnikant has acted in many languages besides Tamil like Kannada, Telugu, Hindi, Bengali and Malayalam. He has acted in a Hollywood movie Bloodstone in 1988.

Awards and Honours
Rajnikanth was honoured with Padma Bhushan Award in the year 2000. He was rated as one of the most influential persons in South Asia by Asiaweek.

Trivia
Rajnikant married Latha on 26 February 1981 in the holy temple at Tirupathi. He has two daughters Aishwarya and Saundarya. His elder daughter Aishwarya married the young Tamil actor Dhanush in 2004.

Politics
In 1996 Assembly Elections in Tamilnadu, Rajnikant supported the DMK - TMC coalition and helped them to defeat the ruling AIADMK party. In the subsequent elections he could not help the party to win the elections. In the 2006 Assembly elections he refrained from supporting any party publicly.