The Super Star of Tamil Cinema was born on 12th Dec 1949. His parents are Shri. Nanoji Rao Gaekward and Shrimathi. Ramboi. He has two brothers and one sister namely Shri. Satyanarayan Rao, Shri Nageshwara Rao and Shrimathi Aswathamma. The Cine popular Rajnikanth was christened by their parents as Shivaji Rao Gaekward and was called as Shivaji before he entered the media. They belong to Maharashtra and were living in Bangalore when Rajni was born. Their ancestors are believed to be from a village called Nachiar Kuppam in Dharmapuri Dist. of Tamilnadu.

Rajnikanth studied in Ramakrishna Mission School in Bangalore. He had been a bright student in childhood but he is reportedly could not finish his schooling due to family circumstances. As grown up Rajinkanth joined a Bus Transport in Bangalore and worked as a Conductor. He was popular on the buses in those days itself for his swift action and style manners, especially among youngsters. He used to act in dramas with his childhood friends and developed a flair for acting as a profession.

As his interest for the art increased, he came to Chennai for a training in the Film Institute. After his successful completion of the course, he got introduced to the leading Director of those days, Shri.K.BALACHANDER, who advised him to develop his skills further, after watching a model play in the Institute. That induced an eternal boost in Rajni and lead him to get a chance for appearing in the Silver Screen for the first time, through a Tamil movie APOORVA RAGANGAL. Shri.K.BALACHANDER, the Director of the movie introduced him in with the name RAJNIKANTH which is revolving around now as a magic spell among the Indian Cinema Industry and doing wonders. Shri.K.BALACHANDER is supposed to be his father in the Industry.

That was his debut in the Cinema industry and was his step stone for a series of successful movies later. Initially he has performed Villain or Anti-hero roles in about 20 movies including 16 vayadhinilae, Moonru Mudichu etc. Then he was given Hero roles starting from Bhairavi. Soon he attained the SUPER STAR status and acted more than 151 films in 7 languages including one in English namely BLOOD STONE. His swift action and style manners contributed a lot for his popularity. He used different styles from film to film to attract the audience, like spinning the sun glasses before wearing on his face, flipping the cigarette directly to his lips, combing his hair with his fingers and a lot of such gimmicks. Along with this he used to deliver a unique dialogue in almost every movie. This has become an important part in his recent movies. "HOW IS IT ?" is one such dialogues which has an Rajni identity for the past 28 years.

In these 28 years he has performed more than 151 movies, out of which 18 celebrated Silver Jubilee (25 weeks), 3 hit 150 days and about 32 were shown for a century of days. Now-a-days he is giving a movie once in a year or two only. He is considered as the lucky star of Indian Cinema Industry for collections. The recent hits of Rajnikanth are BASHAA, MUTHU, ARUNACHALAM, PADAIYAPPA however his latest film BABA has not reached the expectations.

He has made a record in the Indian Film Industry as well as the Tourism Industry by attracting a mob of fans in Japan. A group of tourists from Japan visited Chennai recently to meet Rajnikanth to show their liking for them after viewing the Japanese release of his latest hits, Muthu and Baasha. This has earned a considerable amount of Foreign Exchange for the nation through movie rights and tourism income. Thus it is proved that SUPER STAR RAJNIKANTH and his service to the Indian Cinema Industry are eternal assets for the Indian Nation.