Why Rajinikanth is hot with the cool crowd

BENGALURU: Instagramming selfies with tickets, WhatsApping photos of fans setting off fireworks and prepping garlands, tweeting quick updates after catching the morning show with colleagues — the new Rajinikanth fan seems to be as much about being seen as seeing the film. While the fan associations have a system in place to prepare for a Rajinikanth release, an art they have perfected over decades of Superstar worship, the newer crowd of IT employees and investment bankers are there to enjoy the fan frenzy as much as the film.And with this new legion of fans,
Rajinikanth, whose much-awaited 'Kabali' released on Friday, is among the few who has probably cracked the conundrum most stars who have been on screen for decades struggle with — how to reinvent yourself to appeal to both the mass and the multiplex crowd.
Akhil Gupta, founder of car care startup bumper.com, who has been living in Bengaluru for the past seven years, says he hadn’t watched a single Rajinikanth film before he moved to the city from New Delhi. “I saw the Tamil boys in my class at IIM-B going crazy when we screened ‘Baasha’ at college,” he says. “Until then, I thought only auto drivers were major Rajini fans, I didn’t think an elite IIM crowd would react that way,” he says. So Gupta decided to watch more Rajinikanth films and found himself drawn into the cult.
Last week, two of his employees got a radio jockey to call him during a live show, and he found himself declaring a holiday for his staff on Friday. “Anything for Thalaiva,” says his employee Deepak Raj Murugesan, 23, who pulled the stunt. “I’ve been a fan since I saw 'Padaiyappa' in 1999 and have seen three first day, first shows of Rajinikanth. “But yes, now, lots of people are on social media, posting photos and videos of Rajini, status updates. It is stylish to be a fan,” says Murugesan, who went back to his hometown of Tiruchengode in Tamil Nadu to catch the 6am show with his father.
“The Rajini fan is no longer only the young, lower middle class male with little or no education, probably in a semi-skilled job,” says S V Srinivas, professor, school of liberal studies, Azim Premji University. “Now people from different backgrounds, older people, doctors, IT staff, you and me, we’re all Rajinikanth fans. The class of fans who just enjoys him, without worshipping him, is growing and now Rajinikanth is a national phenomenon,” he says.
The actual washing of cut-outs with milk is still the domain of the devoted, organised fan club member, but technology, marketing and media interest have widened the Superstar’s fan base. “Rajinikanth is the master of the formula,” says Srinivas. “His films are atrociously exaggerated but he constantly explores new themes and styles. You can’t be the kind of hero that appealed in the 1990s and appeal to the multiplex crowd. Rajinikanth films are a celebration that all of us can enjoy, and very few stars have managed to make that transition,” he explains.
And the old-time fans recognize this too. Rajini Nirmal, member-president of Karnataka State Padma Bhushan Rajinikanth Fans’ Association, who organised a 4am screening at Mukunda cinema hall at Banaswadi, said he saw more women at the opening day shows this time. “People do come just to witness the fan frenzy now because they’ve heard so much about it,” he says. “There were also some first timers for the first day, first show, who enjoyed the celebrations.”
Bharath Aravamudhan, a vice-president at a bank in Dubai, made sure he was in India for the first day, first show of 'Kabali', meeting up with his fellow fans from Bengaluru. “We caught a 4am show,” says Bharath, who decided to come here for 'Kabali' after an insipid experience of a first day, first show in Dubai for Rajini’s 'Lingaa' two years ago. “Here, during a first day showing of a Rajini movie, there is as much to watch in the theatre as there is on screen. There is so much excitement. At the first screening in Dubai, there were just a handful of us screaming in a theatre of 500 people. It didn’t feel like I was at a Rajini movie,” he says.
Though Nirmal is thrilled that Rajinikanth’s appeal is transcending class, gender, generation and every other kind of barrier the Superstar rails against in his latest film, he considers people like himself ‘the real fans’. “Unlike the new age fans, we plan and welcome the first day, first show of Thalaivar’s film,” says Nirmal. “We have been doing this for years, and I haven’t missed a first day, first show in 20 years. Rain or shine, we don’t miss it and never will.”