Some Unknown Stories About The Thalaivai, Rajnikant, I Was Witness To 

Ali Peter John

I had heard about a young and frustrated man from Kolhapur called Shivajirao Gaikwad who had boarded a train to nowhere one night and found himself at a station called Madras Central without knowing what he was going to do.  All he knew was that he could mimic the  Hindi film villain Shatrughan Sinha in all the gimmicks and antics he performed as a villain, especially his tricks with cigarettes.  He spent several weeks all-round the city trying to find some work and finally landed up as a bus conductor who did not know a word of Tamil, but could manage with his tricks and antics which gave his passengers entertainment.

 He soon found work as an actor in some touring theatre plays and his performances caught the attention of film makers and one of them was K. Balchander, who was known for discovering new talent.  He travelled all the way to see one of the actor’s play and was impressed and offered to give him a role in his film provided he changes his name to Rajnikant.  That was the beginning of one of the most illustrious and almost unbelievable success story, not only in India, but even in the different parts of the world.

I could never imagine that this same  Rajnikant would be sitting next to me with the popular singer of south, S. P. Balasubramaniam at an awards function at the Shanmukhananda Hall in Bombay.  He was dressed in ordinary jeans and a T shirt and with rubber slippers in his feet and it was extremely difficult to imagine that he was a superstar.  As the function progressed, he and Balasubramaniam were growing restless till Rajnikant could not control hiself and asked me if I was a journalist and the next question he asked was how far Dharavi was from the Hall.  I told him it was hardly 15 minutes away by car or a cab, but he said he wanted to go walking.  I wondered how a superstar could go walking in the busy streets of Bombay and his answer surprised me.  He said he had come to Bombay only becaue he would be free to do all that he couldn’t anywhere in any place in Chennai.  When the two came back, I knew there were satisfied with their trips and had their fill of  country hooch from one of the many speakeasies in Dharavi and they profusely thanked me for my kind act and I was amused but couldn’t show my feelings.

I had lost touch with this strange superstar till he  signed his first Hindi film, “Andha Kaanon”  It kept him flying in and out of Bombay and we became good friends

• with Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini and Madhavi from the south as his co-star. The film was a hit and he was flooded with other offers, but for reasons best known to him, he only did films like “Geraftaar" again with Amitabh and Kamal Haasan and directed by S. Ramanathan and “Hum" with Amitabh and Govinda, Kimi Katkar and Danny Denzongpa and directed by Mukul.S. Anand. He went on record to say that the only good thing that happened to him while working in Hindi films was his opportunity to work with Amitabh from whom he learnt the qualities of hard work and discipline and never to give up working whatever the crisis and circumstances that came his way. The last time he worked in a Hindi film was when he worked in “Takkar" with Shatrughan Sinha who he always called his idol, but the film for some strange reasons had still not been released in a proper way. The only contact Rajni actively now has with Mumbai is with Amitabh and his family.
• Rajni has always been known for his drinking bouts in his earlier days, especially. He was once found drunked and behaving in an unruly manner on a flight when he saw the veteran actor Sivaji Ganesan and instantly came to his senses, touched Ganesan's feet and apologised to all the passengers. He was a regular drinking man for several years. He shot only till eight in the night and then drove to the Chola Hotel in his old Fiat and sat alone in his favourite corner and drank till his former journalist-wife, Latha came and drove him home. But he never failed to report for shooting at the expected time the next morning. At a press conference during an international Film festival, a leading journalist from the UK asked him how he prepared for his shoot the next day and he shot back, “chya, what prepare ma'am? Shooting morning to evening, drinking evening to night, what prepare?"This was the biggest superstar of the South speaking and he made international headline. It is said that he has cut down or almost given up drinking after his two daughters have grown up and settled down and he is even a grandfather.
• That he is full of respect for all his seniors can be seen from this one incident on just one day. Dev Anand was in Chennai as the chief guest of the ‘Screen South Awards'.I was privileged to be chosen by him to accompany him and live in the suite next to him at the Taj Coromandel Hotel. Rajni came to know that Dev was in Chennai and I was with him. He called me and asked if he could see Dev Sahab. I asked Dev Sahab and he said, “call him call him" and I had a tough decision to make about who to call first, Kamal Hassan or Rajni.I called Rajini. Rajini came in 5 minutes. He had not changed. He was still in his jeans, t-shirt and rubber slippers, we only thing that had changed about him was that he had grown completely bald. He entered Dev Sahab's suite and fell flat at his feet and just said, “cannot believe,cannot believe". There were tears in his eyes. He was not invited for the function in the evening, but he came and fell flat at Dev Sahab's feet again, this time before a crowd of thousands of people who watched the scene in stunned silence. They couldn't believe how their god could fall at the feet of another God.
• A lot has changed in Rajini's life since then. Now he is in politics, now he is not. Now he says he is ready to take Sanyas and now he does films like “Kaala" and “Darbar". Now as he is nearing 70, he says he will go easy on action scenes and now he goes into The Bandipur forest of Karnataka to shoot for the most daring wildlife action serial, “Into The Wild With Bear Grylls" being made for the discovery channel for which Prime Minister Narendra Modi has already shot and Akshay Kumar is said to have shot last week.

Sometimes I wonder If that young man, Shivaji Rao Gaikwad is set on the train to nowhere would have ever imagined he would have passed through all these adventurous and daring stations of his life.

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