Soon after his debut in 1975, Rajnikanth went onto becoming a superstar. He has a massive fan following and rules the hearts of his fans with his top-notch acting, gigantic on-screen presence, and captivating dialogue delivery. As the megastar turns 70 today, we bring you some little-known facts about the Thalaiva.
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Rajinikanth's original name is Shivaji Rao Gaekwad and he was brought up speaking Marathi and Kannada.
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Rajinikanth used to work as a coolie, carpenter and a bus conductor before entering the film industry.
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Rajini learned Tamil during his acting course which he pursued from Madras Film Institute.
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Latha Rangachari, Rajinikanth's wife is 8 years younger than him. The two met when Latha came to interview him for her college magazine. They got married in 1981.
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First two years of Rajinikanth's career, he got only negative roles to play - of an abusive husband, a rapist, a womaniser, a pornographer, an adulterer etc, but it was in 1977 when he first got to enact in a positive role in the movie Bhuvana Oru Kelvikkuri.
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He made a special appearance in a Bengali film titled Bhagya Debata, which graced the screens in 1995.
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Rajinikanth's Chandramukhi, directed by P Vasu, became the longest-running Tamil film in 2007. The film was a blockbuster hit and dubbed in Turkish and German as well.
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Rajinikanth has starred in eleven Tamil remakes of Amitabh Bachchan films like Deewar, Amar Akbar Anthony, Laawaris, and Don among others.
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For his blockbuster movie Shivaji, Rajinikanth received an acting fee of Rs. 26 crores in 2007. This made him the second-highest-paid actor in Asia after Jackie Chan.
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Enthiran's success was so huge that the film was included in IIM as a case study to analyse the business of cinema and its success, in a course called Contemporary Film Industry: A Business Perspective. The course also focuses on Muthu, which became a magnum opus in Japan.
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Rajnikanth enjoys a massive fan following of 5.8 million followers on Twitter in a span of seven years, since he joined Twitter. The superstar is a follower of Hinduism and a firm believer in spirituality. He practices yoga and meditation.
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