KABHI KHWAABON MEIN BHI SHIVAJIRAO GAIKWAAD NE SOCHA HOGA KI WO DADASAHEB PHALKE PURASKAR JEETENGE ? By Team Bollyy 12 Dec 2021 | Updated On 12 Dec 2021 04:30 IST in Ali Peter John New Update Follow Us Share Shivajirao Gaikwad was a jobless young man from Kolhapur in Maharashtra. Like most men of his age, he was frustrated and looked to find some kind of adventure that would make life interesting or may be even exciting for him- Ali Peter John Shivajirao got into one of the compartments of a waiting train and without knowing where the train was heading, he just left without even buying a ticket. He was safe throughout the journey and finally landed at a very grand railway junction built during the raj of the British. And the junction was called Central Madras. He didn't know where he had landed and what he was going to do next. He wandered around the city “like a vagabond"as he now remembers. He could make head or tail of the language spoken by people at all levels, but he somehow made his way and was lucky to pick up a few important words in Tamil and finally landed up with a job as a bus conductor. He entertained passengers with his own tricks and his imitation of the Hindi film star, Shatrughan Sinha who was his favourite and whose films had inspired him to try and be an actor like Shatru. He had a problem in finding accommodation and had to live with four other young men in a similar situation lost in an unknown city of unknown people. His skills as an imitator finally got him a place in a touring theatre where he found small roles from which he grew into a major highlight of the plays he performed in. His fame soon spread to Chennai and director K.Balchander who had discovered many other young actors travelled all the way to see this young man from nowhere who was winning the hearts of people. Balachander saw him perform in a couple of amateur plays and decided to take him to Chennai and make him a star with a difference, but before taking him to the city, he changed his name to Rajnikanth. It took Rajnikanth only five years to establish himself as a star and a little more time to master the language spoken by the masses, Tamil. There was no stopping him now and he succeeded in playing every kind of role and in the next fifteen years, he was branded the“Thailava"(legend). He had his own Rajnikanth Fan Clubs, more than two thousand of them all over Tamil Nadu. He took personal care of as many fans as possible. He had his own hall where he conducted the marriages of his poor fans, more than two thousand couples at a time, sometimes. He provided the married couples with a house as per their standings. He provided them with all the jewellery needed for the marriage and all the things needed to settle down in a house of their own. He had become a “God-like figure for his growing number of fans. He came to Hindi films in the nineties, but except for films like“Andhaa Kanoon",“Geraftaar"and“Hum", all of them with Amitabh Bachchan, he could not make much headway like his colleague and contemporary, Kamal Haasan. The young man who took that train to nowhere now rules the hearts of the people of Tamil Nadu, other places in the South, Sri Lanka, the Gulf and even Japan where he is more popular than even Aamir Khan. He is sixty-nine now, bald and greying and a father, a father-in-law and even a grandfather, but he can be as young and dynamic as a rule demands, like in his latest film“Darbar"in which he has Suniel Shetty as the villain, he is playing Rajini as he was when he was thirty-five and keeps changing according to scenes in the film. Some time last year, it seemed like Rajni was all set to take the Tamil Nadu political scenes by storm, but why the storm took a lull is still a mystery, but Rajini, the leader of the masses still has his political ambitions alive. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been trying to rope him in as an ally of the BJP, but has still not succeeded and that could perhaps be one of the reasons why the BJP couldn't make any impact in Tamil Nadu during the recent Lok Sabha elections. Modi however has not yet given up. His first big move was seen when he personally invited Rajini to his oath-taking ceremony at the Rashtrapati Bhawan and Rajini paid back by calling Modi “a charismatic leader like Nehru and Rajiv Gandhi". But Rajini also showed signs of the perfect politician in the making when he also praised Rajiv Gandhi and advised him not to step down as the chairman of the Congress Party. He also talked about the Godavari and Cauvery river dispute. He was all set to enter politics in a big way some months ago, but his health failed him and he had to opt out of politics for good , something that has baffled the politics and the people of Tamil Nadu and the country . Rajni is 70 now and is still very active in films as the Thalaiva ( legend) of the people . The Dadasaheb Phalke Award has come to him at the right time in country where this prestigious award is mostly given to men and women who have retired and have almost been forgotten. RAJNIKANTH KI KAHANI KI SHURUWAAT Who is this Rajinikanth? What is this man called Rajinikanth? Why can this man called Rajinikanth do what most other human being can not even think of doing? How has this humble man who has gone beyond humility in his life become a legend beyond legends during his life time? Why do millions of his admirers and even worshipers treat him like a God on earth? Why is he so down to earth when the people have taken him to a place that can go even beyond the highest mountains and even the sky? Why do you people pour gallons of milk on his cut outs and huge posters all over Chennai? Why do people in a far away country like Japan worship him in the same way as people in Chennai and other parts of India do? Why is he a star who has gone beyond all description? Why has God been so kind to Shivajirao Gaikwad, the unknown man from Kolhapur become a bus conductor in Chennai and then become a God in the same place? These are just some of the questions that keep coming up every time I think about Rajinikanth, a very ordinary man I know, but who I also know is one of the most extraordinary creation ever created by the Creator. CHALTE RAHO RAJNI, ABHI LOGO KO TUMHARE JAADU KI BAHUT ZAROORAT HAI Related Articles Advertisment Latest Stories Read the Next Article