1. He started his career in acting in a supporting role in K Balachander’s Apoorva Raagangal in 1975. Kamal Haasan was the film’s hero. Rajinikanth, then named Shivaji Rao Gaekwad, approached Balachander for a role.. Rajinikanth was a last-minute addition to the film. He played the heroine’s former husband and was immediately noticed.

2. It was K Balachander who rechristened Shivaji Rao Gaekwad as Rajinikanth. Balachander had two other options in mind: Chandrakanth and Srikanth. Rajinikanth was a character in Balachander’s film Major Chandrakanth.

3. Rajnikanth has implicit faith in his wife Latha’s judgement. She is the first to watch all his films and she doesn’t hesitate in giving her opinion blunt and straight. If Mrs R feels a film of her husband’s to be flop material chances are she is right.

4. He has two daughters Sondarya and Aishwarya. He is closer to the former.When she got divorced recently Rajinikanth wept like a child. Speaking to me about her iconic father Sondarya had once said, “He is a very simple human being. He never forgot where he came from. As his children, my sister Aishwarya and I learnt this from him, to never forget our roots. With our Dad there are no two faces. What you see is what you he is.Wether it’s a fan or a producer, he treats them all the same. He has been down to earth all his life.He will never change.We his children try to emulate that trait of our Dad.”

5. Rajinikanth is very close to two people in the Hindi film industry: Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrughan Sinha. Rajinikanth in fact modeled his acting style on Shatrughan Sinha and has openly acknowledged his debt to his senior.

6. The two people most surprised by Rajinikanth’s decision to go into active politics are Amitabh Bachchan and Shatrughan Sinha , because when they went into politics Rajinkanth did his best to dissuade them. He advised both Mr B and Mr S to steer clear of politics.

7. His debut in Hindi cinema was in 1983’s Andha Kanoon was a hit. But all his subsequent Hindi films like Meri Adalat(with Zeenat Aman), Gangvaa(with Shabana Azmi), Asli Naqli, Daku Haseena,were miserable flops.Moral of the story: if Rajnikanth could not break into Bollywood , the rest of the South Indian superstars stood no chance.