Do we like Rajinikanth?
Our score: 7 out of 10. A kind, long-running public figure with no anti-LGBTQ+ record found, held back by a few careless public remarks.
Rajinikanth's story starts nowhere near a film set. Born Shivaji Rao Gaekwad, he worked as a bus conductor in Bengaluru before the movies found him. This month, ahead of Jailer 2, he said he loved that job much more than acting and still misses those five years.
That humble-origin shtick is a big part of why fans in Tamil Nadu and well beyond treat him like a festival. When Jailer 2 opened on 15 October, crowds gathered outside Chennai theatres with banners and giant cutouts. He is 75 and still pulling a first-day, first-show frenzy.
His worst moment came in 2018, after police fired on anti-Sterlite protesters in Thoothukudi and 13 people died. He said “anti-social elements” were behind the violence and that protests would scare off business. An inquiry later found his remarks baseless, and in a written reply he said he had no material to back the claim.
In 2020 he stirred another stoush by recalling a 1971 procession by Periyar's followers. A Dravidian splinter group accused him of spreading lies about the social reformer and filed a police complaint. He refused to apologise, saying he had only repeated what was in press reports.
On harm, here is the honest tally. No campaign against LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or science turned up in what I read, and no harmful company either. The marks are those 2018 remarks, and last year's Coolie audio launch, where he called Aamir Khan “short” and Soubin Shahir “bald”. Critics called that body-shaming, and the article carried no reply from him. He has also touched the UP chief minister's feet and prayed at Ayodhya, which some fans disliked. Those were his own choices, and the harm test judges harm, not faith or politics.
On the good side, in February he honoured a Chennai sanitation worker who handed back 45 sovereigns of gold she found on the street. He gave her a shawl and a gold chain at his home. A filmmaker criticised the gesture, but the reports I read carry no reply from him. In 2021 he received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India's top film honour.