Super Star Rajinikanth

Rajinikanth (born Shivaji Rao Gaekwad, December12, 1949) is one of the most influential and bankable movie stars in the Indian film Industry, a superstar in the Tamil and Telugu films. He received India's third highest honour, the Padma Bhushan, for his contribution to Indian cinema in 2000. He was reportedly paid Rs. 16 crores for his latest blockbuster Sivaji.

Early life

Rajinikanth was born to a Marathi family in Karnataka He was the fourth child of his parents, Jijabai and Ramojirao Gaekwad. He was named Shivajirao Gaekwad. Gaekwad is a family name among the Marathas. He lost his mother at the age of five. He did his schooling at the Acharya Paatashala in Bangalore and then at the Vivekananda Balaka Sangha, a unit of the Ramakrishna Mission. Rajnikanth struggled a lot during his early age because of poverty. Although his mother-tongue is Marathi, he has not acted in any Marathi movies yet.

He began his career doing various jobs in Bangalore. He also attended a theatre for stage plays. Before starting his career in the film industry, he worked as a bus conductor for the Bangalore Transport Service in Bangalore It was during this time that he nurtured his acting interests by performing in various stage plays.

Personal

He married Latha on February 26, 1981, at the age of 31 in Tirumala - Tirupati and they have two children: Aishwarya and Soundarya. Latha currently runs a school named - The Ashram.
His daughter Aishwarya married actor Dhanush on November 18, 2004 and they have one son, Yathra.

Most of his movies during the nineties were also successful, like Mannan, Muthu Baashha and Padayappa. Rajinikanth wrote his first screenplay for the film Valli(1993). His film Muthu was the first Tamil film to be dubbed into Jappanese as Muthu: The Dancing Maharajah and became very popular in Jspan. When he was 53, Baba released amidst much fanfare. Although the film grossed enough to cover its budget, it was viewed as one of the miserable movies in his career. It fell short of market expectations and high bids reportedly accumulating to heavy losses for the distributors. It is also rumoured that Rajinikanth repaid the losses incurred by the distributors who laid immense faith in him. His latest film, Sivaji the Boss, directed by S.Shankar released on June 15,2007, has become the first Tamil movie to make the UK and South Africa Top 10. Rajnikanth will now be lending his voice to the lead character (based on himself) in an animation film for Adlabs titled Sultan:The Warrior to be directed by his daughter Soundarya Rajinikanth. The movie is scheduled for a 2008 release. Rajnikanth's next movie with Kavithalaya Productions and produced by his mentor director K.Balachander.This movie is named as "Kuselan". Rajnikanth is going to make another film with Shankar. Robot will be produce by Ayngaran International and EROS. He is one actor who has one of the largest fan following in India

Awards and honours

Rajinikanth was named as one of the influential persons in South Asia by Asiaweek He has won the Filmfare Best Actor award and many other awards during his acting career.

Between 1977 and 2005 Rajinikanth received awards from several organizations, like Tamil Nadu State Government Award, Cinema Express, Filmfans Association, Filmfare etc., for his on-screen performances and off-screen contributions in writing and producing. He has received awards in the Best Actor category for his performance in the films

Sivaji, Chandramukhi, Padayappa, Peddarayudu, Basha, Muthu, Annamalai, Thalapathy,Valaikaran, Sri Raghavendra, Nallavanuku Nallavan, Moondru Mugam, Engeyo Ketta Kural, Aarilirunthu Arubathu Varai, Mullum Malarum and 16 Vayathinile. He received an award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for Bhavana Oru Kelvi Kuri . He has also received awards in Best Story Writer and Best Producer categories for Valli.

He has also received other honours such as Raj Kapoor Award (2007) from the Government of Maharastra, Padma Bhushan (2000) from Government of India, Kalaichelvam Award (1995) from the Nadigar Sangam, Oshobismit Award (1995) for Spirituality from Rajinish , MGR Award (1989) and Kalaimamani Award (1984) from the Government of

Recently (September 2007) Rajinikanth won the Best Actor award, given by the Government of Tamil Nadu for his role in the film Chandramukhi(2005). Recently, he has been selected as best movie entertainer in India for the year 2007 by NDTV

His fans all over the world are gathering support to place a life size wax statue in the Madame Tussauds Wax Museum New York , New York City. The fans are excepting that this highest paid and a huge fan admiration actor should be given this high honour as like Amitabh, Shah rukh khan and Aishwarya rai whose statues are also present in this museum.