Rajinikanth PROFILE
Before joining films, South Indian superstar Rajinikanth, had worked as a bus conductor. But fate had something else in store for him and he went on become one of the greatest actors of the film industry. While his success in the South Indian industry has been unprecedented, he has not played such a major role in Hindi films. He made his foray into Hindi films with 'Andha Kanoon' and followed it up with roles in movies like 'Bhagwan Dada', 'Uttar Dakshin', 'Sone Pe Suhaga', 'Bhrasthachar', 'Chaalbaaz', 'Phool Bane Angaaray', 'Giraftaar' and 'Hum'. The actor managed to rub shoulders with the best that the Hindi film industry had to offer, beginning with male co stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Jackie Shroff, Mithun Chakraborty, Vinod Khanna, Sunny Deol and Govinda and female co stars like Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit, Rekha and Dimple Kapadia. However, he began his acting career in Tamil films in 1975 with K Balachandra's 'Apoorva Raagangal', a man who he believes to be his guru and mentor. His career in the South peaked between the years 1992 to 1999. He took a sabbatical for three years before making a comeback in 2002. 'Chandramukhi' in 2005 and 'Sivaji The Boss' in 2007 proved that Rajni was invincible at the box office. In fact, 'Sivaji' went on create history and it is believed that Rajni received a payment of Rs 26 crore for the movie. However, 'Kuselan' in 2008, failed to live up to expectations and many distributors lost money on the movie. The superstar is believed to have made good their losses with his own money. Year 2010 saw Rajni again standing on the brink of creating history as his film 'Endhiran'/ 'Robot', has raked in Rs 206 crore on the opening day itself. Said to be one of the costliest Indian films ever, it remains to be seen what records it will create at the box office. As for Rajini, he still remains the superstar that he was!