About Rajinikanth
Shivaji Rao Gaikwad (born 12 December 1950), known professionally as Rajinikanth, is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Tamil cinema. In a career spanning over five decades, he has done 170 films that includes films in Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, Kannada, Bangla, and Malayalam. He is widely regarded to be one of the most successful and popular actors in the history of Indian cinema. The Government of India honoured him with the Padma Bhushan in 2000 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2016, India's third and second highest civilian honours respectively, the Dadasaheb Phalke Award in 2019, the highest Indian award in the field of cinema, and the IFFI Satyajit Ray Lifetime Achievement Award for his contributions to world cinema. Following his debut in K. Balachander's 1975 Tamil drama Apoorva Raagangal, Rajinikanth's acting career commenced with a brief phase of portraying antagonistic characters in Tamil films. His major positive role as a scorned lover in S. P. Muthuraman's Bhuvana Oru Kelvi Kuri (1977), 1978's Mullum Malarum and Aval Appadithan received him critical acclaim; the former earned him a Tamil Nadu State Film Award Special Prize for Best Actor. By the end of the decade, he had worked in all South Indian film industries and established a career in Tamil cinema. He then played dual roles in the action thriller Billa (1980), a remake of the Hindi film Don (1978). It was his biggest commercial success to that point, earned him stardom and gave him the action hero image. He starred in triple role in Moondru Mugam (1982), which earned him a special prize at the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards ceremony. The following year, he made his Hindi film debut with T. Rama Rao's top grossing Andhaa Kaanoon (1983). Nallavanukku Nallavan (1984) won him that year's Filmfare Award for Best Tamil Actor. In the latter half of the 1980s, he starred in several successful films in Tamil and Hindi, including Geraftaar (1985), Padikkadavan (1985), Mr. Bharath (1986), Velaikaran (1987), Manithan (1987), Dharmathin Thalaivan (1988), Mappillai (1989) and ChaalBaaz (1989). In 1991, Mani Ratnam's Tamil crime film Thalapathi, earned Rajinikanth major critical acclaim for his performance. He collaborated with Suresh Krissna for many films including Annaamalai (1992) and Baashha (1995); the latter was the biggest commercial success in his career yet as well as the highest-grossing film in Tamil for many years. His other success includes P. Vasu's Mannan (1992), Uzhaippali (1993) and K. S. Ravikumar's Muthu (1995) and Padayappa (1999); the latter, which went on to become his and Tamil cinema's highest-grossing movie, exceeding Baashha. After a few years of hiatus, Rajinikanth returned to acting with the comedy horror film Chandramukhi (2005); it went on to become the highest-grossing Tamil film of all time. His next, S. Shankar's Sivaji (2007) was the third Indian film and the first ever Tamil film to enter the 100 Crore Club. He then played dual role as a scientist and an andro-humanoid robot in the science fiction film Enthiran (2010) and its sequel 2.0 (2018), both being India's most expensive productions at the time of their release and among the highest-grossing Indian films of all time. His action films Jailer (2023) and Coolie (2025) became major commercial success in Tamil cinema, making him the only actor in the industry with three films surpassing the ₹500 crore mark. Known for his uniquely styled mannerism and one liners in films, he has a huge fan base and a cult following, he has won numerous film awards, including the National Film Award, eight Tamil Nadu State Film Awards, a Nandi Award, a Filmfare Award and two Maharashtra State Film Awards. Rajinikanth was named one of the most influential persons in South Asia by Asiaweek. He was also named by Forbes India as the most influential Indian of the year 2010.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.