From humble beginnings as a conductor on a city bus to the second highest paid actor (behind Jackie Chan) in Asia, Rajnikanth has indeed come a long way. In terms of appeal and charisma, he could be described as the Schwarzenegger of India minus the muscles. I say Schwarzenegger because, like the Austrian Oak, Rajnikanth has inspired and continues to inspire tens of millions of people. While Schwarzenegger was directly responsible for the start of a billion dollar fitness industry, which provides a livelihood to the enormous amount of people involved in it, Rajnikanth's contributions have been markedly different. He provides hope to the downtrodden, those fanatic fans of his who look forward to every one of his movies. For the more well-off classes, the arrival of a new movie of Rajnikanth's is something to look forward to as well with the expectancy being more or less same as there is when, say, the Christmas...excuse me, when the holiday season is just around the corner.
Rituals are performed outside a movie theater in India screening Rajnikanth's new release Sivaji.
Did you know that, when a new Rajnikanth movie comes out, his fans (the fanatic ones) actually perform religious rituals right there in movie theaters?! They do this so that the Gods will ensure that the movie has a terrific run in theaters. I have found this behavior both fascinating and revulsing. It is fascinating because it showcases the larger-than-life persona of Rajnikanth and the great deeds (outside of the movie industry) that he is capable of where he to become more ambitious. It is revulsing because these fans look outside, to a single man, for hope, strength and inspiration and it does not look like they are going to change their tune anytime soon. This, in turn, gives rise to the fear that the community and social standards of today, which may well have allowed Rajnikanth to become who he is in the first place, will continue to remain.
Rajnikanth's new movie Sivaji (his first in two years) was recently released in theaters worldwide. I haven't watched it but I heard that it is doing well (number 9 in the UK Box Office as of this writing!). In his movies from the 70s and 80s, he mostly played down to earth roles. But his projects from the 90s and 2000s have shown him in larger than life roles. While Schwarzenegger has found a way out in the form of the Governorship of California, it remains to be seen for how long Rajnikanth or "Thalaivar" (meaning "leader", as his fans love to refer to him) can keep up his momentum as a huge box office draw. Whether he makes the transition to more realistic roles and/or retirement (as an actor) seamlessly is not important anymore given what he has achieved so far.
Fans apparently have been waiting in line for hours to see Sivaji all over the world.
The actor and icon is now in his late fifties. And in Sivaji, special care has been taken to make Rajnikanth appear half his age! To that end, my only gripe is that he never seems to have made an effort to develop and maintain a strong physique (which in his movies is portrayed as being able to absorb an enormous amount of "punishment" with amazing recuperative powers). I can only imagine the quality of the physiques on Indian men evident today had someone like Rajnikanth played an active role in (inadvertently or not) promoting physical culture. It is probably too late now. Nevertheless...a job well done!
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