Rajinikanth is an senior & notable Indian actor. His real name is Shivaji Rao Gaikwad. He was born on 12th December 1950 in Bangalore, Karnataka, India, who works primarily in Tamil cinema. Rajinikanth is known for his Enthiran (2010), Kabali (2016), Kaala (2018), Petta (2019), Darbar (2020), Annaatthe (2021), Jailer (2023), Lal Salaam (2024) and Vettaiyan (2024). Besides acting, he has produced some movies too. Before entering career in films, Rajinikanth had pursued all odd jobs which includes one as a coolie and a bus conductor in Bangalore and acted in many Kannada plays as well.
In the year 1973, Rajinikanth gained admission to Madras Film Institute with the help of his friend Raj Bahadur, a fellow bus driver. In the film institute, he was helped by his vice principal, A. Prabhakaran. In 1975, Rajinikanth made his debut in the Tamil film industry which also starred Kamal Haasan and Srividya. Directed by Balachandar. The same year he played a minor role in Katha Sangama, a Kannada Movie.
Rajinikanth had made a groundbreaking statement that if J. Jayalalitha comes to power even God can not save Tamil Nadu. His statement resulted into ouster of AIADMK from the TN government and DMK took over the reign. He said that he would personally vote for BJP but he wouldn’t support any alliance in the parliamentary election held in the same year.
After years of waiting, On 31 December 2017 Rajinikanth announced that he will enter into politics before Tamilnadu Assembly Election 2021. On 3 December 2020, Rajinikanth announced that he officially enter into politics on December 31, 2020. On 29 December 2020, Rajinikanth withdrew his decision of launching a political party. In an open letter to his fans and the people of Tamin Nadu, the superstar apologized and said that he would never enter politics.
Rajinikanth has acted in a total of 190 movies, which include Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam, Hindi, English, and Bengali films. Rajinikanth made a foray into Bollywood with Andha Kanoon but did not make as much of an impact as he had in the south.
He still appeared in a few films in Hindi, such as Chaalbaaz with Sridevi, Uttar Dakshan, Geraftaar, and Hum. He made his Hollywood debut with the movie Bloodstone in 1988, which was released to much fanfare in India at the time of its release. However, the movie failed in the United States.
Rajnikanth went on to star in many of India’s largest blockbuster films, including Moondru Mugam (1982), Thalapathi (1991), Baasha (1995), Padayappa (1999), and the science-fiction thriller Enthiran (2010) and its sequel, 2.0 (2018); in the latter two movies he played both the robot Chitti Babu and its creator Dr. Vaseegaran.
Rajnikanth’s acting style was characterized by unbridled exaggeration and pronounced mannerisms; his signature gesture—in which he deftly flipped a cigarette high in the air and caught it between his lips—was adored by his intensely devoted fans.
The following year, Rajinikanth acted in his first Kannada film, Katha Sangama, directed by Puttanna Kanagal. Though Rajinikanth refers to director K. Balachander as his guru or mentor, it was director S. P. Muthuraman who actually revamped Rajinikanth’s image entirely.
Rajnikanth won the Tamil Nadu State Film Award for Best Actor, the highest accolade for an actor in Tamil cinema, numerous times. In 2000 he received the Padma Bhushan for his contributions to Indian film.
Rajinikanth was born as Shivaji Rao Gaekwad in a Marathi family in Karnataka, India. His ancestors are from the village of NachiKuppam in Krishnagiri district, Tamil Nadu. He was the fourth child of his parents, Jijabai and Ramojirao Gaekwad, a police constable.
He lost his mother at the age of eight. He did his schooling at the Acharya Paathshala in Basavanagudi, Bangalore, and then at the Vivekananda Balaka Sangha.
He married Latha Parthasarathy, sister of actor Y. G. Mahendran’s wife, on February 26, 1981, at the age of 31 in Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, and they have two daughters named Aishwarya Rajinikanth and Soundarya Rajinikanth.