Rajinikanth

Shivaji Rao Gaikwad (born 12 December 1950), known professionally as Rajinikanth, is an Indian actor who works mainly in Tamil cinema.

In a career spanning over five decades, he has done 169 films that includes films in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Bengali, and Malayalam.

He is widely regarded to be one of the most successful and popular actors in the history of Indian cinema.

Known for his uniquely styled lines and idiosyncrasies in films, he has a huge fan base internationally and has a cult following.

Rajinikanth was born as Shivaji Rao Gaikwad on 12 December 1950 in a Marathi Hindu family in Bangalore, Mysore State (present day Karnataka).

His mother was a homemaker, and his father Ramoji Rao Gaekwad was a police constable.

His ancestors hailed from Mavadi Kadepathar, Pune, Maharashtra.

He is the youngest of four siblings in a family consisting of two elder brothers (Satyanarayana Rao and Nageshwara Rao) and a sister (Aswath Balubhai).

After his father's retirement from work in 1956, the family moved to the suburb of Hanumantha Nagar in Bangalore and built a house there.

He lost his mother at the age of nine.

Rajinikanth had his primary education at the Gavipuram Government Kannada Model Primary School in Bangalore.

As a child, he was "studious and mischievous" with a great interest in cricket, football and basketball.

During this time, his brother enrolled him at the Ramakrishna Math, a Hindu monastery set up by the Ramakrishna Mission.

In the math, he was taught Vedas, tradition and history, which eventually instilled a sense of spirituality in him.

In addition to spiritual lessons, he also began acting in plays at the math.

His aspiration towards theatre grew at the math and was once given an opportunity to enact the role of Ekalavya ' s friend from the Hindu epic Mahabharata.

His performance in the play received praise from the Kannada poet D. R. Bendre.

After sixth grade, Rajinikanth was enrolled at the Acharya Pathasala Public School and studied there till completion of his pre-university course.

During his schooling at the Acharya Pathasala, he spent a lot of time acting in plays.

Following his debut in K. Balachander's 1975 Tamil drama Apoorva Raagangal, Rajinikanth's acting career commenced with a brief phase of portraying antagonistic characters in Tamil films.

His major positive role as a scorned lover in S. P. Muthuraman's Bhuvana Oru Kelvi Kuri (1977), 1978's Mullum Malarum and Aval Appadithan received him critical acclaim; the former earned him a Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize for Best Actor.

By the end of the decade, he had worked in all South Indian film industries and established a career in Tamil cinema.

He then played dual roles in the action thriller Billa (1980), a remake of the Hindi film Don (1978).

It was his biggest commercial success to that point, earned him stardom and gave him the action hero image.

In the latter half of the 1980s, he starred in several successful films in Tamil and Hindi, including Geraftaar (1985), Padikkadavan (1985), Mr. Bharath (1986), Velaikaran (1987), Manithan (1987), Dharmathin Thalaivan (1988), ChaalBaaz (1989), Hum (1991) and Phool Bane Angaray (1991).

He starred in triple role in Moondru Mugam (1982), which earned him a special prize at the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards ceremony.

The following year, he made his Bollywood debut with T. Rama Rao's top grossing Andhaa Kaanoon (1983).

Nallavanukku Nallavan (1984) won him that year's Filmfare Award for Best Tamil Actor.

In 1991, Mani Ratnam's Tamil crime film Thalapathi, earned him major critical acclaim for his performance.

He collaborated with Suresh Krissna for many films including Annaamalai (1992) and Baashha (1995); the latter was the biggest commercial success in his career yet as well as the highest-grossing film in Tamil for many years.

His other success includes P. Vasu's Mannan (1992), Uzhaippali (1993) and K. S. Ravikumar's Muthu (1995) and Padayappa (1999); the latter which went on to become his and Tamil cinema's highest-grossing movie, exceeding Baashha.

The Government of India honoured him with Padma Bhushan in 2000, Padma Vibhushan in 2016, India's third and second highest civilian honours, and highest award in the field of cinema Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2019 for his contributions to Indian cinema.

After a few years of hiatus, he returned to acting with the comedy horror film Chandramukhi (2005); it went on to become again the highest-grossing Tamil film.

His next, S. Shankar's Sivaji (2007) was the third Indian film to enter the 100 Crore Club.

He played dual roles, as a scientist and an andro-humanoid robot, in the science fiction film Enthiran (2010) and its sequel 2.0 (2018), both being India's most expensive productions at the time of their release, and among the highest-grossing Indian films of all time.

In 2023, his most recent blockbuster Jailer, made a significant impact in the Tamil film industry, earning over 600 crores and establishing him as the sole actor with two 500 crores movies in the industry.

He also once again became the highest paid actor in India with Jailer, earning a total of 210 crores for the single film.

He has won many awards including, one National Film Award, seven Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, a Nandi Award and one Filmfare Award.

Rajinikanth was also named one of the most influential persons in South Asia by Asiaweek.

He was also named by Forbes India as the most influential Indian of the year 2010.