The Boss, No Doubt ; Southern Superstar Rajinikanth's Latest Flick Sivaji: The Boss Promises to Be the Biggest Blockbuster Ever, with Projected Box Office Takings of Rs 350 Crore in India and Abroad. What Makes the Ageing Star a Global Phenomenon?

Business Today › July 27, 2007

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Summary

It's seven in the evening and I am inside Abirami theatre in Chennai's Puraswalkam area, eager to get up close with the biggest phenomenon of the season in Indian cinema. My perch is about four rows from behind, but it's not a seat--I am on the steps of a staircase that leads up to the balcony. The crowd has barely settled in, but the place is throbbing with excitement. My odd vantage point is explained by the fact that I am on a job and that there are no tickets available for the show. Therefore, I have sweet-talked Abirami's owner Abirami Ramanathan to let me catch the first few minutes of the movie Sivaji for a first-hand feel of the Rajini mania that has been sweeping through Tamil Nadu (not to mention, surprisingly, several other parts of India and the world).

Last of the trailers ends and the screen comes alive with the words "Superstar Rajini". That's enough to send the crowd into raptures; there are young men in the front rows whistling and dancing, and even the more sophisticated back row audience can't help but start clapping. The whistles and cheers only get louder when the star himself makes his appearance on the screen and, Abirami's Ramanathan tells me, that's pretty much how the mood inside the hall remains till the movie ends. And, by the way, most of the people on the seven o'clock show with me that day had seen the movie at least once before.

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The Boss, No Doubt ; Southern Superstar Rajinikanth's Latest Flick Sivaji: The Boss Promises to Be the Biggest Blockbuster Ever, with Projected Box Office Takings of Rs 350 Crore in India and Abroad. What Makes the Ageing Star a Global Phenomenon?

Rajinikanth, or Shivaji Rao Gaekwad as his parents named him, has been a celluloid phenomenon in Tamil Nadu for a few decades now. In fact, there are several Rajini fan clubs that extend from Tamil Nadu to Japan. But the mass hysteria that Sivaji has generated is unprecedented even by Rajini's own standards and, to an outsider, a bit bizarre. From Mylapore to Melbourne, and Latur to London, movie goers have embraced the 57-year-old star with surprising warmth. There have been those who don't understand a word of Ta...

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