Happy Birthday Rajinikanth: 11 little-known facts every 'Thalaiva' fans should know

On Rajnikanth's 70th birthday, we bring you some interesting facts about the Padma Bhushan and Padma Vibhushan awardee.

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.

Rajinikanth's original name is Shivaji Rao Gaekwad and he was brought up speaking Marathi and Kannada.

Rajinikanth used to work as a coolie, carpenter and a bus conductor before entering the film industry.

Rajini learned Tamil during his acting course which he pursued from Madras Film Institute.

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.

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.

He made a special appearance in a Bengali film titled Bhagya Debata, which graced the screens in 1995.

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.

Rajinikanth has starred in eleven Tamil remakes of Amitabh Bachchan films like Deewar, Amar Akbar Anthony, Laawaris, and Don among others.

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.

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.

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.