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Film industries have seen many superstars, but only some rare gems out of them would elevate to a demigod status. The same day, forty years ago marked the entry of a man who would become the most celebrated demigod. Only the intellectuals and critics use the term ‘demigod’ to denote the level of celebrity status of this man. For a large number of his entire fan fraternity, he is the ‘god’ -born as a man with blood and flesh-who has to be worshipped.
No marks for guessing that we are referring to the one and only evergreen Superstar Rajinikanth. His debut film ‘Apoorva Ragangal’ was released on August 18, 1975 and today the acting career of Rajini has completed four decades.
It may sound like an adage, but it is true that Rajini’s unbelievable growth was not earned overnight. It meant years of toils, insults, rejections and embarrassments and it took phenomenal confidence, perseverance and hard work for this man to become what he is today.
Rajini was introduced to the film industry by director K.Balachander who was at the peak of his career at that moment. But that and the super hit status of his debut film didn’t fetch a flood of offers to Rajini. In his initial days Rajini had to long for offers. He had to travel hundreds of kilometers for an acting chance only to be rejected finding fault with his appearance.
But perseverance paid and Rajini slowly started getting noticed as a villain and character artiste. His Gurunathar KB had trust in him and cast him in many of his films for negative and supportive roles which also drew the attention of his peer directors towards Rajini
When Rajini became a powerful villain/supporting actor ,he slowly transformed as a hero material and his first film as a lead hero was ‘Bhairavi’ which was his 26th release including the films he acted in Telugu and Kannada. The success of the film fetched him more hero offers and at one point of time he became the busiest actor. He acted as hero in 25 films which released in a short span of three years and that marked the emergence of Rajini, the star. The rest is history as they say.
The year 1995 was an important turning point in Rajini’s professional career as it saw the release of blockbuster film ‘Baasha’ which is still revered as his masterpiece by many of his fans and fans of other actors. At the same time Rajini’s voice on Tamil Nadu’s political situation played a role in the state assembly elections held in the following year and that was the point when people especially his fans expected Rajini to enter politics. However Rajini’s political entry remains a dream till date.
After delivering a blockbuster in 2010 with ‘Enthiran’ Rajini suffered a massive health problem which caused a three year hiatus in his acting career. His comeback film ‘Kochadiiyaan’ which was shot with the all new performance capture technology and his last ‘Lingaa’ failed to make wonders at the box office and the latter incurred some bitter experiences for the Superstar from the distributors' side
When his critics started penning stories calling it as the ‘sunset’ of Rajini’s empire, the sexagenarian star hit a master stroke by teaming up with director Ranjith who is one of the highly acclaimed young directors. The film titled as ‘Kabali’ will be going on floors from September and it will remain in headlines for many months to follow.
Rajini will be reportedly joining hands with director Shankar for the sequel of his blockbuster sci-fi entertainer ‘Enthiran’ in 2016. Though this project is yet to be officially confirmed the news stories about the star cast, technical crew and the budget of this film are hitting the headlines of cinema news columns.
This proves the sun of the Superstar’s empire is still shining ablaze.
Indiaglitz takes pride in wishing the most loved icon of film industry a great future and even more celebrative silver jubilee year to come. |
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