Rajinikanth was born on 12 December 1950, in a Marathi family.
Upon completion of his school education, Rajinikanth continued to perform various jobs in the cities of Bangalore and Madras, including that of a coolie and carpenter, and finally ended up being recruited in the Bangalore Transport Service (BTS) as a bus conductor.
He began to take part in stage plays after Kannada playwright Topi Muniappa offered him a chance to act in one of his mythological plays. During this time, he came across an advertisement issued by the newly formed Madras Film Institute which offered acting courses. Though his family was not fully supportive of his decision to join the institute, his friend and co-worker Raj Bahadur motivated him to join the institute and financially supported him during this phase. During his stay at the institute, he was performing in a stage play and got noticed by Tamil film director K. Balachander. The director advised him to learn to speak Tamil, a recommendation that Rajinikanth quickly followed.
Rajinikanth began his film career through the Tamil film Apoorva Raagangal (1975). In 1977, he got his first-ever lead role in the Telugu film Chilakamma Cheppindi. In 1978, Rajinikanth went on to star in 20 different films in Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada. By 1980 he was a popular actor in the South Indian cinema. During this phase of his career, Rajinikanth abruptly chose to quit acting, but was coaxed to return with the Tamil film Billa, a remake of the Bollywood film Don (1978). It had Rajinikanth playing dual roles and eventually became his first ever commercial success.
In 1983, he starred in his first Bollywood film, Andha Kanoon, alongside Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini. The film went on to become one of the highest-grossing films of that time. His greatest success in Hindi films was his 101st film, Bewafai. Released in 1985 with Rajesh Khanna as the lead hero and Rajnikanth as villain, it became a success and grossed Rs 11.95 crore at the box office that year. By the 1990s, Rajinikanth established himself as a commercial entertainer. Almost all the films released during this period were highly successful at the box office. Hum released in 1991 saw him doing the second main lead with Amitabh Bachchan became an inspiration for Badsha. He joined hands with Suresh Krishna for Baashha (1995), which emerged as an industry record, and is routinely touted by fans and critics alike as a major-hit, as the film elevated him from being just another very popular actor to nearly a demigod status among the masses.
Two years later, Rajinikanth signed up for P. Vasu's Chandramukhi (2005), a remake of the Malayalam film Manichitrathazhu. Upon release the film was highly successful at the box-office, and in 2007 it set the record of being the longest running Tamil film. Chandramukhi was also dubbed in Turkish and German as Der Geisterjäger and released in the respective nations. Following Chandramukhi's release, it was reported that AVM Productions were set to produce a film directed by Shankar starring Rajinikanth—the largest collaboration yet for a Tamil film. The film was titled Sivaji and released in the summer of 2007, following two years of filming and production. It became the first Tamil film to be charted as one of the "top-ten best films" of the United Kingdom and South Africa box-offices upon release. Rajinikanth received a salary of ₹26 crore (equivalent to ₹55 crore or US$8.2 million in 2016), for his role in the film, which made him the second highest paid actor in Asia after Jackie Chan.
Rajinikanth worked again with Shankar for the science fiction film, Enthiran. The film was released worldwide in 2010 as the most expensive Indian film ever made, ultimately becoming the second highest-grossing film in India of its time. Rajinikanth was paid a remuneration of ₹45 crore (equivalent to ₹71 crore or US$11 million in 2016) for the film.
Rajinikanth reprised his Enthiran character, Chitti, in the Bollywood science-fiction film Ra.One (2011) in a guest appearance alongside Shah Rukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor. In November 2011, it was decided that Rana would be shelved in favour of a new project with Rajinikanth, titled Kochadaiiyaan. The motion capture film, which is the first of its kind in India, was released in 2014 to positive reviews. Kochadaiiyaan, and the 3D release of Sivaji in 2012 made Rajinikanth the first Indian actor to have appeared in four different forms of cinema: black-and-white, colour, 3D and motion capture.
Following the completion of Kochadaiiyaan, Rajinikanth began work in Ravikumar's next directorial venture, titled Lingaa alongside Anushka Shetty and Sonakshi Sinha. The film was released on 12 December 2014 coinciding with his birthday. Rajinikanth's next film was director Pa. Ranjith's crime drama Kabali, produced by S. Thanu. The film was released in July 2016. Rajinikanth is filming for 2.0, a spiritual successor to Enthiran, that is scheduled for release in 2017. In August 2016, it was announced that he would work with Ranjith again for a new film produced by Dhanush.
Rajinikanth has received numerous awards for many of his films mostly in Tamil. He was honoured with the Padma Bhushan (2000) and the Padma Vibhushan (2016) by the Government of India. In 2014, he was presented with the "Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the Year" at the 45th International Film Festival of India held at Goa.
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