Bollywood and Tamil Films Superstar Rajinikanth was born on 12th December 1949 in Bangalore his birth name was Shivaji Rao Gaikward. Rajinikant was youngest sibling and has two brother and one sister. After the death of his mother his birth name was Shivaji Rao Gaikwad. He was born in Maratha Family to Jijabai and Ramoji Rao Gaikward his father was Police Constable. When he was only five he lost his mother from the he started to struggle with an impoverished lifestyle during his childhood. He has done number of odd jobs for his living as he had done a job of coolie. He has done his elementary education from Government Primary School at Gavipuram in Banglore. He got married with Latha Rangachari on 26th Feb 1981 at the age of 31 in Tirupati. From this wed-lock he has two daughters Aishwarya Rajinikant and Soundarya Rajinikant. His elder daughter is married with actor Dhanush. His younger daughter work as director, producer and graphic designer in film industry and got married with industrialist Ashwin Ramkumar.
During the period of 1966 and 1973 Rajinikanth done job in number of places in Chennai and Bangalore Transport Service he worked as Bus Conductor. There onward he started taking part in stage plays and from there he got offer to act in a Mythological moral play by Topi Muniappa a Kannada play writer and director. He became most notable when he played a role of villanious as Duryodhana. He got inspired by his co-worker Raj Bhadur who motivated him to join Madras Film Institute for this Raj Bhadur also financially supported him. As he was performing very well on stage plays therefore he came in the eye of director K. Balachander who offered him to work in movies. He insisted him to learn Tamil, therefore he did what was said by K. Balachander and this helped him in making his career in Tamil Films
After going through small phase of portraying antagonistic character in Tamil Movies with time he constantly established as film star. After few years Rajinikanth became a leading actor of Tamil Cinema and became popular among Tamil audience. Therefore his style of acting and delivering dialogues made him most popular actor. After being paid about Rs.26 crore for his role in movie Shivaji which was released in 2007 he became second highest paid actor in Asia.
Till date he has worked in about 150 movies. During this period he has won six Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, 4 Best Actor Award, 2 special awards As Best Actor and won Filmfare best Tamil Actor Award. In 2000 he received Highest Award of India Padma Bhushan.
Rajinikanth started his career as actor in 1975 working in Tamil movie Apoorva Raagangal in this his co-star was Kamal Haasan and this movie was directed by K. Balachander. This film received National Film Award as best Feature Film in Tamil. His second movie was Kannada movie Katha Sangama released in 1976 and this movie was directed by Puttanna Kanagal. Then he was seen in Telugu Movie Anthuleni Katha and this movie was directed by K. Balachander as this movie was remake of Tamil Film Aval Oru Thodar Kathai. During this period he continued playing number of negative roles. He accepted first ever leading role in 1977 in Telugu Movie Chilakamma Cheppindi.
Rajinikanth’s first Tamil Movie in which he got a main hero role was Bairavi in 1978. After receiving great success of Bhuvana Oru Kelvikkuri prompted Muthuraman to make a Mushy Melodrama with Rajinikant as hero who will be sacrificing everthing for well being of his siblings in Movie Aarilirunthu Arubathu Varai which was released in 1979. same year he was seen in movie Dharma Yuddam in this movie he played a role of mentally ill person who is going to take revenge of his parents death. He has also worked with N.T. Rama Rao.
In 80’s he became popular South Indian Actor. Though during this period Rajinikant decided to quit acting but was coaxed back. He made his comeback with Billa film in Tamil which was a remake of bollywood movie Don. Rajinikant’s paring with Sridevi continued in movie Johnny where he was once again casted in double role after Billa. In 1981 he acted in Garjanai was released in Kannada and Malayalam version. For his acting in movie Murattu Kaalai he achieved great commercial success. Rajinikant in First home production of K. Balachander movie Netrikan in this movie he played dual role as a father and son. Rajinikant acted in first comedy film Thillu Mullu directed by K. Balachander. First time he played three roles in movies such as Pokkiri Raja and Thanikattu Raja. Moondru Mugam.
In 1983 he entered in bollywood with his debut in Andha Kanoon in this movie he worked along with Amitab Bachchan and Hema Malini and this movie became highest grossing movie at the box-office. For his performance in Nallavanuku Nallavan he received Filmfare best Tamil Actor Award. He played a role of Hindu Saint Raghavendra Swami in movie Sri Raghavendra and this was is 100th movie.
In 1988 he made his appearance in Hollywood movie Bloodstone directed by Dwight Little. Then he acted in Raja Chinna Roja and this was first ever movie of Indian Film industries which used animated character with actors.
His movie Muttu was another blockbuster, directed by K. S Ravikumar as this movie became the first Tamil Movie which was dubbed into Japanese. And this movie made a grossed record of $1.6 million business in Japan and this movie gained huge fan list of Japanese for Rajinikant.
In 1995 Rajinikant made his debut in Bengali Film Industry working in Bhagya Debata.
Rajinikant has received award for in the category of Best Actor for his performance in movies such as Shivaji, Chandramukhi, Padayappa, Peddarayudu, Baasha, Muthu, Annamalai, Thalapathy, Velaikaran, Sri Raghavendra, Nallavanuku Nallavan, Moondru Mugam, Enkeyo Ketta Kural, Aarilirunthu Arubathu Varai, Mullum Malarume. And he has also received awards in Best Story Writer and Best Producer categories for Valli.
In 2007 he received Raj Kapoor Award by Government of Maharashtra. He was named and honoured with the Padma Bhushan award, India’s third highest civilian honor and he was also selected Number one entertainer by NDTV in 2007. In 2010, he received the Chevalier Sivaji Ganesan Award for Excellence in Indian Cinema.
Rajinikant’s movie sivaji became the first Tamil movie which was charted in top-ten best films of United Kingdom and South Africa box-offices upon release. After sivaji he worked in Kuselen which was a remake of Kadha Parayumbol directed by P.Vasu in this movie he was given a cameo role anyhow this movie got flopped. Rajinikant did movie Enthiran with director Shankar this movie was based on science fiction and this movie was high budgeted movie costing about 162 crores and became one of the highest grossing movie of the year.
Due to his busy schedule Rajinikant on 29th 2011 got exhausted during the first day shoot of his latest venture Raana therefore he got ill and was admitted in the Isabel Hospital in Chennai though he was discharged same day from the hospital but he was again admitted on May 4 for allergic bronchitis and viral fever. After returning from hospital after week he was again admitted to the Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre on May 13 for respiratory infection and gastrointestinal problems. After that on May 28th he was admitted to the Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre in Singapore and was discharged after a complete recovery. And her returned back to chennai on July 13, 2011 and from September he returned back to start working on his latest project RANA. We wish him good luck for his future projects.