Happy Birthday Rajinikanth: 10 Interesting Facts About The South Superstar

From being a bus-conductor to being the superstar of the Kollywood film industry, Rajinikanth's journey has set milestones in the Indian film industry. (Image Source: Instagram)

Shivaji Rao Gaekwad is the real name of Rajinikanth who was raised speaking Kannada and Marathi. Rajinikanth learnt Tamil, while pursuing his diploma in acting from Madras Film Institute. (Image Source: Instagram)

He began his acting career with the movie 'Apoorva Raagangal'. It was a Tamil drama by Balachander. Kamal Haasan and Srividya also acted in the film, which was released on August 15th, 1975. (Image Source: Instagram)

Rajinikanth has appeared in eleven superhit Tamil remakes of Amitabh Bachchan movies, including 'Deewar', 'Amar Akbar Anthony', 'Laawaris', and 'Don'. (Image Source: Instagram)

Professor Joyojeet Pal from the University of Michigan produced a documentary about Rajinikanth and his followers. ' For The Love of a Man' was the title of the documentary, and it paid tribute to his enormous fan base. (Image Source: Instagram)

Such enormous is his fan base that when Rajinikanth opened his account on Twitter in 2014, he reportedly got 2,10,000 followers within 24 hours. Social media research firms claimed that it was the fastest rate of followers for an Indian celebrity till date. (Image Source: Instagram)

Rajinikanth was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2000 and was honoured in 2016 with the Padma Vibhushan, for his contributions to the industry. (Image Source: Instagram)

Rajinikanth was presented with the Centenary Award for Indian Film Personality of the Year during the 2014 Film Festival of India in Goa. He also received the Entertainer of the Decade Award from NDTV in 2011. In December 2013, he was named one of the 25 Greatest Global Living Legends. (Image Source: Instagram)

He received a huge sum of Rs 26 crore in 2007 for his blockbuster film 'Shivaji', which makes him the second highest paid actor in Asia after Jackie Chan. (Image Source: Instagram)

Rajini has two films coming up next – director Nelson Dilipkumar's 'Jailer' and his daughter, Aishwarya Rajinikanth's 'Lal Salaam'. (Image Source: Instagram)