Rajinikanth Birthday: Tamil superstar Rajinikanth has been associated with Telugu cinema since the beginning. Rajinikanth worked as a city bus conductor in Bangalore before entering the cinema. At that time he used to watch the second show every day. At that time, Rajinikanth mostly watched NTR’s movies in second shows. Rajinikanth loves NTR’s mythological films. Rajini says that he has seen NTR’s film ‘Shrikrishna Pandavyam’ many times in Bengaluru. Rajinikanth used to imitate NTR in the beginning. His first Telugu film was ‘Anthuleni Katha’. If you see Rajinikanth’s Bani in the song ‘Devede Dayo Vedhi Okhati…’, you will understand how much he imitates Rama Rao. Rajini also showed his style by blowing a cigarette in the middle of the song.
Rajinikanth acted in ‘Tiger’ with his favorite actor NTR. This movie was released in 1979 and was directed by Nandamuri Ramesh. During the shooting of ‘Tiger’, Rajinikanth has repeatedly said in interviews how much he admired NTR. While Rajinikanth is playing a key role in NTR’s ‘Tiger’, Rama Rao on the other hand is shooting his film ‘Srimadvirata Parvam’. In it, Rama Rao entertained by playing five distinctive characters like Srikrishna, Arjuna, Suyodhana, Keechaka and Brihanna. Rajini used to say that he had seen that film in Bangalore. Shobhan Babu’s wish is to act as Sri Krishna in NTR’s direction. Similarly, Rajinikanth wishes to act in any film directed by Rama Rao. These moments were shared with Shobhan during Rajinikanth’s ‘Jeevanaporatam’. Both Shobhan and Rajni’s wishes were not fulfilled.
At that time, if Rajinikanth had time, he used to take drugs. When NTR came to know about this, he suggested, ‘Brother… you have a great future… avoid that drug habit…’. Moreover, they are told to resort to yoga and pranayama to get rid of that habit. Rajini had been practicing yoga before, but after NTR’s advice, he took it seriously and practiced it with more dedication. After that he started going in spiritual thought. It was only after that achievement that Rajinikanth reached the level of superstar in Tamil Nadu. However, Rajinikanth was never far away from spiritual thought. He often goes to the Himalayas and visits Baba there. It is said that every time he goes there, something good happens to Rajinikanth.
He produced and acted in the film ‘Baba’ on his own with a spiritual feeling, but the film failed to impress as expected. Buyers suffered losses. Rajinikanth returned some amount to compensate their loss. It is remarkable that Rajinikanth follows NTR in this tradition as well. ‘Brahmarshi Vishwamitra’ was released in 1991, starring NTR and directed by himself. They bought it at huge rates with the craze for that movie. But the film was not popular. As a result, the buyers suffered losses. Then NTR paid compensation to the losers. It is noteworthy that Rajini is also going in the same direction.
Rajinikanth, who is a huge fan of Rama Rao, spoke on behalf of NTR in 1995 when Chandrababu and Co sacked him. At that time, a press meet was arranged with Rajinikanth in the conference hall of the AP assembly premises. At that time Rajinikanth compared NTR with Ramaswamy Naykar who is known as Periyar of Tamilnadu. Later, while leaving Hyderabad for Madras, to a question asked by reporters again at the airport, Rajinikanth proudly said that he is still a fan of NTR. Rajinikanth still remembers NTR every time he comes to Hyderabad. They say, ‘The deficit without Anna is irreparable’. Rajinikanth was selected for the NTR National Award for the year 2016 by the Telugu Desam government, which was earlier in power in Andhra Pradesh. The award is yet to be presented. In any case, Rajinikanth admired and followed NTR in many ways. But in politics, without showing aggression like NTR, Rajini stuck the party as it was.
(Rajinikanth’s birthday on December 12)