New Delhi: Recent release ‘Jailer,’ starring superstar Rajinikanth, has been smashing records at the box office. It has just passed the Rs 500-crore barrier in India. Lately, the actor's schedule has been filled with extensive travel. On August 29th, he visited BMTC (Bengaluru Metropolitan Transport Corporation) bus depot no. 4. To the utter amazement of the staff, the 72-year-old actor stopped by a bus depot in the Jayanagar neighbourhood on Tuesday.
In the years leading up to his first acting role in K Balachander's Apoorva Ragangal (1975), Rajinikanth had a job as a bus conductor at the depot and performed in plays in his spare time. Back then, he worked as a conductor for the Bangalore Transport Service (BTS, now BMTC), where he drove on route 10A. After being encouraged to pursue acting by Raj Bahadur, he enrolled in classes and made it into Kamal Haasan's film ‘Apoorva Ragangal’.
The actor was seen chatting with bus station workers in a short clip that was shared on X (previously Twitter).
Fans, stunned by his arrival, were spotted touching his feet out of respect.
A senior official has said that the actor's visit to BMTC was completely unexpected. The official said to The Hindu, “It was an impromptu visit. He interacted with our crew, which included drivers, conductors, and depot staff. It might be a nostalgic experience for him as he had previously worked as a conductor in buses of the depot.”
Nanjundaswamy, a crew member at the Jayanagar depot, was quoted in The Hindu as saying, “We were not aware that Mr. Rajinikanth will visit the depot. At around 11.30 a.m. he arrived in a car and walked inside the depot with the driver and his friend, and spoke to all of us. He remembered his days working in this depot. He spent 10 minutes with us here and left.”
While in Bengaluru, Rajinikanth also stopped by Raghavendra Swami Math after his quick visit to the depot.