Rajinikanth: Sree Raaghavendar, Baba satisfied my soul

“Even though I have done so many movies, the films that satisfied my soul were Sree Raaghavendar and Baba. I don’t know how to express my gratitude to those great people who gave me the opportunity to act in these movies. Not many knew that Raaghavendar was born and raised in Bhuvanagiri. And it was the movie Sree Raaghavendar that popularised it. Similarly many didn’t know about Mahavatar Babaji until Baba,” the 71-year-old superstar said at the event.

And interestingly, Sree Raaghavendar and Baba both were considered box office duds. Sree Raaghavendar was a milestone film in Rajinikanth’s career as it was his 100th film. And he had earlier revealed that he did the movie despite knowing it may not appeal to his core fan base.

“When I wanted to act in Raaghavendar, a couple of producers came to me and showed interest to make it. I was surprised and I told them this film can’t be made commercially,” Rajinikanth had said at the success event of Velaikkaran (1987).

Rajinikanth then noted that the producers who wanted to bankroll Sree Raaghavendar wanted to add usual commercial elements, including a double role, and a handful of dance numbers. But, Rajinikanth refused and he later requested his mentorm late film icon K. Balachander to bankroll the movie. And Balachander obliged the request of his star student.

“Balachander made that film without worrying about loss and profit. And that movie came into existence. After that film, the next film that was made by Kavithalayaa Productions was Sindhu Bhairavi, followed by Punnagai Mannan, Thirumathi Oru Vegumathi and Velaikkaran. All of them were successful films,” Rajinikanth had said, claiming that everyone who was associated with Sree Raaghavendar went onto to achieve great success in their careers.

Baba was a passion project for Rajinikanth. Besides acting in it, he had written and produced the movie about an atheist who becomes a true believer in god. The film opened amid a lot of hype but became a huge disappointment at the box office at the time. And Rajinikanth created a new precedent by returning the losses incurred by those who distributed his film.

Rajinikanth is now preparing to join the sets of director Nelson Dilipkumar’s next, which has been tentatively titled Thalaivar 169. The film will be bankrolled by Sun Pictures.