From bus conductor to actor then to a star and later as the superstar was a journey of hills and valleys for the global star Rajnikanth, however he relished every moment of this success saga in spite of pitfalls in the initial stages.  Rajini is a whole man worth admiring  for staying clear from controversies while maintaining a balanced life. He is remarkable as an actor, benevolent as a man and philosophical as a learned, on the whole he is the legend of south India with global fame, a legendary humane

Rajini found his way in to the tinsel world as a vagabond husband to musician wife  in Apoorva Raagangal (1975). The Tamil film was the creation of another legend, filmmaker K Balachander  and the Telugu remake was  'Anthuleni Kadha', in which Rajini retained his role. That was the way, today's superstar entered the Woods.

There was a time in the early eighties when he was called the Friday star with frequent releases but later he changed the trends and acted a film in a year, though now the gaps have gone to two to three years. Rajini's career is incomplete with out the mention of his mentor Balachander. To this day the actor takes pride in informing that he used to get things right only after a light manhandling by  this fatherly figure.

If one takes a deeper look at Apoorva Raagangal, the character, Pandiyan appears for two minutes in the end. The only act in the film was that Pandiyan claps watching his wife perform and falls dead. This first onscreen death had given birth to the superstar of the day. From then on he played some antagonist roles with another legendary actor Dr Kamal Hassan in the lead role.

Later in Mullum Malarum (1978), Rajini proved his mettle as an actor and the film made by filmmaker J Mahendran, won state recognition, a special honour. In this our superstar, as Kaali was rigid outside and lovable inside. A handicapped brother and his dreams for his loving sister made the threads of the storyline which were interesting.

 However Billa (1980) the remake of Hindi, Don, marked the commercial star image to the brilliant actor. In this he portrays two characters Billa and Rajappa and shows his versatility in depicting the variations in both. It was one of the most successful films that broke all commercial records of that time. The film was remade in Telugu with the same name and handsome star Shobhan Babu in the lead.

Thillu Mullu (1981) saw the comedy shade in this angry young man as Indiran and Chandiran. The same person takes up dual identity to appease his boss. The concept of the film was 'modern bread or modern dress', meaning for the sake of living, one has to make some compromises. It was a hilarious entertainer again directed by Balachander.

Another versatile project by Rajni was Moondru Mugam (1982) where he depicts three roles as father and twin sons, Alex Pandian, Arun and John, directed by A Jagananthan. This film defined Rajini as the superstar of Kollywood. The variations he showered as a strict police officer who dies on duty and the two sons are awesome. To this day the way Bond pronounces his name, 'my name is bond.....(with a pause) James Bond) rings within us, similarly Rajini uses a peculiar accent to pronounce his name, 'Allllex...Pandian' in the film.

However Rajini raised to the superstar status with Baasha (1995) by filmmaker Suresh Krishna. The film was released bilingual in Telugu and Tamil with the same name. Baasha broke all records at the ticket counter in South India, while heralding Rajini as the superstar of south India.

His hundredth film, Sri Raghavendra (in Telugu, Sri Mantralaya Raghavendra Swamy Mahatyam)  was a land mark in his career where he portrays the the Lord Raghavendra. He was totally devoid of all his usual histrionics and made an impact on the film goers. S P Muthuraman directs the film.

His mighty budgeted film was Endhiran (2010) (Robot in Telugu) entered the 100 crore club and was one of the few films from south that reached this elite status. This film also boasts of the technical excellence on par with Hollywood. Shankar directs Endhiran while A R Rehman does the music honours, it is virtual  land mark in Indian cinema panorama.

Right now the Superstar is gearing up to release his next flick Kochadaiyaan directed by his daughter Soundarya, probably scheduled around march next year. The multi-lingual film will be released in Telugu as Vikramasimha and will also be released in Hindi, Malayalam, English and Japanese. Kochadaiyaan is the first Indian 3D film to be shot with performance capturing technology. The only other films to have used this in Hollywood were Aatar (2009) and The Adventures of Tintin (2011).

With Muthu the star had a wider base of fans in Japan and since then he started to have a Japanese character in his film to reciprocate his love for the country. This paid off for Rajini as his films grabbed good markets in other countries where our nationals were not in big numbers too. In fact he was one among the few stars in India who were an unofficial cultural ambassadors of the nation.

Annually his birthday (12 December) was a festival for his fans and this year it is all the more important as it is 12-12-12. Another delight to the fans is that Sivaji-3D will be releasing, globally on his birthday, today. Wishesh wishes the legend a very Happy Birthday and prays for his long healthy life. (From a Rajini fan)