Page 8 - Seniorstoday July 2024 Issue
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characters. Then there was Siresh Krishna come with such great enthusiasm. I feel
who completely changed the dimension very bad refusing them and their stories.
when it comes to me being an actor. Then So at one point of time, I even stopped
there were the filmmakers like P Vasu, hearing scripts,” he says, talking about
KS Ravikumar, Shankar, Ranjith, Kartik his long break before signing on Jailer by
Subbaraj and then Nelson. They all Nelson.
showed Rajinikanth in the movies like how Rajini has always believed in self-
they wanted to show,” he says. deprecating humour bringing laughter
Having said that, Rajinikanth says that as one realises that a star of his nature
there are many makers who came to him can be so humble. One recollects how he
with stories and ideas and ended up only spoke once of an incident when a rich
disappointing him. “The fact is I heard businessman from Rajasthan wondered
many stories, but then some of them were how he could be a hero in the film Robot
like the ones I had played earlier and there opposite Aishwarya Rai after looking at
was nothing new in the stories. I was his simple demeanour, receding hairline
also being portrayed in a similar manner. and white hair. But that is how Rajini is.
Some of these subjects sounded so huge He even made fun of himself as to how
and grand that I would often wonder if I he had only one dance step and two close
could entrust the said maker with a film ups in his song sequence with actress
of that scale. Sometimes one does hear a Tamanaah in Jailer where she was given
wonderful one line from a filmmaker and the entire footage. “The director Nelson
when he is sent to develop the movie, he and choreographer Jani Master shot 5
comes back with a really bad version of and a half days with her and sent me
the script which is so different from what packing and did not even let me talk to
he had even narrated in the first place,” he Tamannaah,” he chuckles in jest.
laments.
Having said that, refusing a filmmaker
and not doing his film is something that
the Thalaivar dreads. “It is not easy. When
a director says that he wants to narrate
a subject to me, he would have told his
family and friends that he was going to tell
me a script. So when I decline the same,
imagine what kind of a disappointment
it would be for them as they would have
Rajini sings with Rahman and lyricist Vairamuthu
The biggest superstar of India, however
says that he did not like it when one of his
financers Kalaipuli S Thanu wanted to
put his moniker as Superstar after the film
Bairavi released. “It was in 1977/78 and
he said that he wanted to put Superstar in
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