Goa: In Indian showbiz industry, possibly the most inspirational story of rags-to-riches is of Rajinikanth - a bus conductor named Shivaji Gaekwad who went on to become a phenomenon called Thalaivar. Agreed, Rajinikanth is the undisputed superstar today, but it took him close to four decades to be one of the most lauded and highest paid actors. He may be living an extravagant life now, but things - lavish homes and expensive cars - didn't always come so easy. While many think it is Rajinikanth's unique style and punch dialogues helps him reach out to the masses, distributors believe it is just his presence that make people flock to the theaters.
In Goa to attend IFFI 2014, Rajinikanth may not have flipped his glasses, or rolled them multiple times, or cut a bullet into pieces with a blade, but it was his mere presence that left everyone astonished. Amitabh Bachchan who attended the opening ceremony of the festival as the chief guest, presented the Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the Year to Rajinikanth.
"I came here to receive an award and not give a speech. Have no words to say after Amitabh Bachchan gave a wonderful speech," said Rajinikanth at IFFI's opening ceremony in Goa.
Rajinikanth, born Shivaji Rao Gaikwad on December 12, 1950, is one those actors who struggled as a hard-up child, started from the bottom and rose to the top, and continues to shock and impress cinegoers.
When he completed his school education, Rajinikanth took up multiple jobs in Bangalore and Madras. And yes, he even worked as a coolie and carpenter to make ends meet, and finally got recruited in the Bangalore Transport Service (BTS) as a bus conductor. He soon began performing stage plays after Kannada playwright Topi Muniappa gave him the chance to act in a mythological play. Since he was keen on studying acting to hone his skills, he didn't mind going against his family to join Madras Film Institute . It was during his stay at this institute that he began performing in stage plays and soon got noticed by K. Balachander, a Tamil film director. Rajnikanth, who was quick to act on K Balachander's advise to learn Tamil language. Eventually things worked in his favour and his career progressed from there. Rajinikanth, who didn't take too long to rule the Southern film industry, has won several awards for his acting potential.
Rajinikanth kicked off his acting journey with Tamil film Apoorva Raagangal (1975), and has since then been part of in several titles. He grabbed everyone's attention as a character actor in the popular film 'Aarulirunthu Arupathu Varai', and appeared in several Bollywood projects like 'Bhagwan Dada', 'Chaalbaaz', 'Hum' and many more.
IFFI 2014 will be screening close to 179 films which have been picked from 75 countries in different categories including World Cinema (61 films), Masterstrokes (11 films), Festival Kaleidoscope (20 films), Soul of Asia (7 films), Documentaries (6 films), and Animated Films (6 films).
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