Superstars may come, and superstars may go, but some superstars stand the test of time, and it is but understood that their legacy is written in stone. One such superstar is Rajinikanth, who in his fiftieth year as an actor, continues to be the flavor du jour in Indian cinema. How does he manage to continue to be the superstar of all seasons, and even in 2025 sets the cash registers ringing as loudly as it did in 2015, 2005, 1995, 1985, and 1975? While Rajinikanth is known for many things, one aspect of his persona that stands out the most is his style statement. Be it the way he flips his hair, rolls his sleeves, toys with his sunglasses, flicks his cigarette, and basically moves… everything has become a style statement for the ages. But where did it all begin?
During a cultural show organised by the Nadigar Sangam in 2018, Rajinikanth opened up about his bus conductor days, and whether the style statements were changes incorporated after he came to cinema, or did it have a different story altogether. “Naturally, I am a stylish person,” said Rajinikanth, adding that it was moulded during the days he spent as a bus conductor in Bengaluru. “This was a time when a conductor used to take around 30 minutes to distribute the tickets for all the passengers. I used to finish it in ten minutes.”
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Apart from just the inbuilt speed and innate style, there was another aspect of his job that provided him more impetus to work on his speed and style. “In those days, women used to sit in the front rows, and the men used to sit in the back rows in Karnataka buses. Generally, the conductor would finish giving the tickets, and stay in the back. But I used to stand right in the front. I used to have a lot of hair, and when the breeze rustled through it, and it started getting unruly, I would just flip my hair back in place. And in every stop, I used to say ticket, ticket, right from the front. So yeah, I always imbibed the style, I guess,” said Rajinikanth reminiscing on his good old days.
Letting the excited audience know that it was this style and speed that caught the eye of director K Balachander, who introduced him to cinema through the 1975 Tamil film, Aboorva Ragangal, Rajinikanth said, “He told me to hold on to this aspect of my persona very dearly. He warned that the cinema industry will ask me to change to conform to the already established standards, and urged me to never change. ‘This is new… maintain it,’ was what he said, and that’s exactly what I have been doing.”
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On the acting front, Rajinikanth, who was last seen in TJ Gnanavel’s Vettaiyan, has Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Coolie, and Nelson’s Jailer 2 in the pipeline.