Thalapathy Vijay to Superstar Rajinikanth: Stars who have caught up with MS Dhoni

Cricket and films have been the most popular entertainment avenues for people across India for decades now. One of the most talented and popular cricketers of Indian cricket, Mahendra Singh Dhoni announced his retirement today and the whole nation has gone berserk following the sudden retirement.

MS Dhoni made his ODI debut in December 2004 against Bangladesh and played his first Test a year later against Sri Lanka. The star cricketer became Chennai's most favorite when he captained the Chennai Super Kings in the inaugural IPL in 2008 and then led the team to victory in 2010, 2011 and 2018.

While wishes and tributes have been pouring from across the country and world on the retirement of the world-class Indian cricketer, here's a look at some of the stars from our Tamil film fraternity who have had the chance to catch up with Namma Thala Dhoni over the years.

More than saying the Superstar Rajinikanth caught up with Dhoni, it was actually Dhoni who caught up with Rajinikanth during the promotions of his biopic 'M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story', which starred the late Sushant Singh Rajput. Dhoni met Rajinikanth at the latter's residence for an extended conversation and sought his blessings. Dhoni posted the video of his meeting with the superstar on Facebook. Interestingly, Rajinikanth who is an ardent cricket fan, was at the stadium in Mumbai when Dhoni hit the World Cup-winning six and was seen cheering joyfully for the Indian team throughout the match.

Thalapathy Vijay, who was then Ilayathalapathy, met MS Dhoni way back in 2008, when he was the brand ambassador of the Chennai IPL team along with Nayanthra. While it's not known how much time the two actors spent with Dhoni, pictures of them together during CSK matches and events in Chennai have been going viral for many years now.

Actor Sarathkumar met the former India skipper in Singapore, in 2018, when he attended the inauguration of Dhoni's cricket academy. The extremely fit actor had a brief interaction with Dhoni and wished him luck for his initiative to take cricket beyond India.

Director Vignesh Shivn, who is apparently a huge fan of Dhoni, met him in 2018 and said it was his lifetime dream to meet the star cricketer. Calling it the happiest and most satisfying moment in his life, he described Dhoni as a born leader, role model and a huge inspiration. He had also taken to his social media to say that one of his dreams was to see MS Dhoni lead the country one day.

During the promotion of his biopic, M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story, Suriya and Jyothia’s daughter Diya and son Dev, who are huge fans of Dhoni were completely awestruck to see their idol in person. Suriya's daughter Diya even asked Dhoni if he was naughty when he was in school, to which Mahi replied, "All of us are naughty when we are kids. But what's still important is, there are certain things you can do and a lot of things that you are not supposed to do. So, I was naughty and mischievous and I still follow those guidelines." Dhoni had a small chat with the kids and told them that he is a big fan of Suriya. In his film 24, actor Suriya had a scene in which he clicks a selfie with Dhoni, which was done using visual effects

The young actors Vignesh and Ramesh, who played the lead roles in the National-Award winning film Kaaka Muttai, met their cricketing idol MS Dhoni at the DY Patil Stadium in 2015. After the meeting, Vignesh said he had to pinch himself to believe that it was Dhoni who was talking to them. It was a dream come true moment for the young boys, when they were taken by the film’s director M Manikandan to meet Dhoni, after the team came to know about their admiration for the star cricketer.

The cute family of actor Prasanna and actress Sneha along with their son Vihaan were lucky enough to have a picture with MS Dhoni in 2017, when the star cricketer had come down to Chennai for Chennaiyin FC's football match in Chennai. The CSK captain co-owns the franchise in the Indian Super League.

The talented singer and actress Andrea had the rare opportunity to click a selfie with the former Indian captain on a flight back in 2016. An excited Andrea shared the selfie clicked by MS Dhoni himself and captioned it: "Look who's on my flight".

The pretty actress has often revealed that she is a huge fan of MS Dhoni and will even give her life for him. Interestingly, Megha Akash goes to all the CSK matches that happen in Chennai. In an interview, she even said that she loves cricket and has stopped watching the sport since Dhoni isn't the captain of India anymore.

Music composer Dharan Kumar met Dhoni at an event earlier this year in March, when the former Indian captain had come down to Chennai to train with some CSK team members for the upcoming IPL. The young composer was seen all happy and excited to get a picture with legend.