Do you know of any other actor or celebrity with a title so firmly attached to his name?
Jackie Chan is undoubtedly a superstar. But nobody routinely calls him “Superstar Jackie Chan.”
Hollywood has produced countless celebrated actors. Some are famous for their talent, some for their popularity, and some for both. The West does have celebrity titles—the King of Pop, the King of Rock and Roll, and so on—but these titles are seldom incorporated into an actor’s name, film publicity and opening credits in quite the same way.
Tamil cinema is different.
We had Makkal Thilagam MGR and Nadigar Thilagam Sivaji Ganesan, among many others. Tamil cinema has a long tradition of giving its beloved personalities grand titles.
Those two giants are no longer with us.
But one enormously popular star from their era is still very much alive—and still actively making films.
He is none other than Superstar Rajinikanth.
My own Rajinikanth memories
Many members of the present generation know Rajinikanth through his current popularity. But he was already radiating charisma in the 1970s and 1980s.
Some of my earliest memories of going to the cinema with my parents are connected to his films.
When our family first bought a VCR, the first movie we rented was also a Rajinikanth film. For a long time, I could not remember its title. I remembered only that he acted alongside an elephant.
I now believe the movie was Annai Oru Aalayam, released in 1979. Rajinikanth plays an animal hunter who eventually helps a baby elephant reunite with its mother.
So many of my childhood memories are tied to Rajinikanth.
Being a Singaporean, I also have a Singapore-related favourite: “Akkarai Seemai Azhaginile” from the 1978 film Priya.
The song was actually filmed in Singapore. It shows Rajinikanth and Malaysian actress Aznah Hamid travelling along Singapore roads, visiting beaches and enjoying the city’s nightlife. The song itself celebrates Singapore and its people.
Rajinikanth and Singapore were part of each other’s stories even then.
But how did he become “Superstar” Rajinikanth?
Who gave him the title?
For years, I assumed that the title emerged naturally from the public.
Perhaps millions of fans somehow began calling him Superstar until the name became permanent.
But that was apparently not how it began.
The title originated from a commercial publicity decision made by one man.
His name was Kalaipuli S. Thanu.
The occasion was the release campaign for Bairavi in 1978.
Rajinikanth’s first solo-hero film
Rajinikanth entered Tamil cinema through K. Balachander’s Apoorva Raagangal in 1975.
During the early part of his career, he became known for playing villains, supporting characters and men with shades of grey. Even when he was not the principal hero, audiences noticed his unusual style and screen presence.
Bairavi, directed by M. Bhaskar and produced by writer Kalaignanam, is generally regarded as Rajinikanth’s first film as an independent solo hero.
Interestingly, Rajinikanth was reportedly hesitant to accept the responsibility of carrying an entire film. Kalaignanam had to persuade him to take the role.
Imagine that.
The man who would eventually become one of Indian cinema’s biggest heroes was once reluctant to become a hero.
Thanu’s marketing gamble
Kalaipuli S. Thanu was then a young distributor and publicity specialist—not yet the major film producer he would later become.
After looking at still photographs from Bairavi, Thanu apparently saw something special in Rajinikanth. He believed that this was a version of Rajinikanth audiences had not seen before.
Perhaps Thanu was also ambitious and determined to make the project successful. Whatever his motivation, he unleashed his marketing creativity.
Among the things he reportedly did were:
- Erecting an enormous Rajinikanth cut-out—variously described as 35 or 40 feet tall—outside Chennai’s Plaza Theatre.
- Producing posters larger than the standard cinema posters of the period.
- Placing those posters around Madras and elsewhere in Tamil Nadu.
- Using dramatic images of Rajinikanth with a whip, wrestling a snake and carrying a goat.
- Most importantly, printing the words “Superstar Rajinikanth.”
That was where the title began.
Not through an award.
Not through an official ceremony.
Not even through a spontaneous declaration by his fans.
It began on a publicity poster.
Rajinikanth reportedly objected
Rajinikanth being Rajinikanth, he was apparently uncomfortable with the title.
MGR and Sivaji Ganesan—the two towering personalities of Tamil cinema—were still active. Rajinikanth was a relatively new actor establishing himself as a leading man.
Imagine how it might have appeared: a young actor suddenly allowing himself to be promoted as “Superstar” while MGR and Sivaji were still around.
According to the commonly repeated account, Rajinikanth sent producer Kalaignanam and director M. Bhaskar to ask Thanu to tone down the campaign.
Thanu would not budge.
In fact, he reportedly went even further and printed another set of posters declaring:
“The Greatest Superstar Rajinikanth in Bairavi.”
That is certainly one way to respond to a request to tone things down.
From the posters to the screen
The word “Superstar” was used to market Bairavi, but it was not yet part of Rajinikanth’s opening credit in the film itself.
That happened later.
In the 1980 film Naan Potta Savaal, “Super Star” reportedly appeared in the opening credits, moving the title from publicity material onto the cinema screen.
More than a decade later, director Suresh Krissna took it another step forward.
For Annamalai in 1992, he introduced the animated sequence in which the dots and letters form the words “SUPER STAR RAJNI,” accompanied by its now-familiar sound and music.
It was no longer merely an actor’s credit.
It became an event.
For Rajinikanth fans, seeing those letters form on the screen was the signal to cheer, whistle and celebrate—even before Rajinikanth himself appeared.
The journey can therefore be summarised in three stages:
- 1978 — Bairavi: “Superstar” appears in the publicity campaign.
- 1980 — Naan Potta Savaal: the title moves onto the screen.
- 1992 — Annamalai: the familiar animated “SUPER STAR RAJNI” presentation arrives.
A title that outlived the marketing campaign
Thanu might never have imagined that his marketing label would become a multigenerational phenomenon.
Perhaps he was simply a young man determined to perform his current assignment as well as he possibly could. He saw something distinctive in Rajinikanth and made a bold marketing gamble.
But while a marketer can print “Superstar” on a poster, he cannot force several generations of audiences to keep using it.
It was Rajinikanth’s career, screen personality and extraordinary relationship with his audience that made the title permanent.
And it did not last for only one generation.
Almost fifty years have passed since Bairavi. Rajinikanth is not regarded as Superstar only by people who grew up with him in the 1970s and 1980s. Younger generations who were not even born during the height of his early career recognise him by the same title.
Kalaipuli S. Thanu created the label.
Rajinikanth spent the next five decades giving it meaning.
Sources and further reading
- “S-U-P-E-R-S-T-A-R” — The Big Indian Picture, including Kalaipuli S. Thanu’s recollection of the Bairavi campaign.
- “When was Rajinikanth first anointed ‘Superstar’?” — Scroll, drawing on Naman Ramachandran’s biography of Rajinikanth.
- “Rajini’s Finger, Indexicality, and the Metapragmatics of Presence” — Cambridge University Press, discussing the evolution of the Superstar title sequence.
- The News Minute’s account of “Akkarai Seemai Azhaginile” and its Singapore locations.
Leave a Reply