A superstar's Bangalore days

BENGALURU: On Saturday Rajinikanth turned 70. Today, Rajinikanth represents style and stardom in Indian cinema – a real-life reputation that underwent a memetic mutation into the epitome of badassery. The actor has dominated the Tamil film industry in a career spanning 45 years – a career that is still going strong with the man holding a godlike status among fans.But before all the stardom and idolisation there was a bold and buoyant boy who locals fondly called Shivaji who lived a simple life in Bangalore’s Hanumanthanagar 4th Cross packed with friends, fun and fistfights. The world knows him as a bus conductor turned actor but unknown is the fact that he began his career as a Kannada proofreader at Samyukta Karnataka newspaper in old Bangalore. STOI set out to explore the latest of Tamil Nadu’s film star-turnedpolitician’s Bangalore days.
The star’s roots
Rajinikanth’s father Ranoji Rao was originally from Nachikuppam village in Krishnagiri district, Tamil Nadu. Before independence he moved to Bangalore after marrying his relative Rambai from Somanahalli village in Ramanagara district, Karnataka, and securing a job of a police constable with the erstwhile Mysore Police. The couple settled at a tiny house near Ramanjaneya gudda temple in Hanumanthanagar where Rajinikanth was first brought to after his birth. The star’s elderly relatives living here recall his elder brother Sathyanarayana Rao taking a heavily pregnant Rambai to the Vani Vilas Hospital here as a 11-year-old boy as his father was away on duty in the city. She gave birth to her fourth child, a boy, at 11.55 pm on December 12, 1950 at the hospital and constable Ranoji later named him R. Shivaji Rao.

When Shivaji was five his mother passed away and the family moved to a house on 8th Main, 4th Cross in Hanumanthanagar where he spent his childhood and days of youth before leaving for Madras to pursue his acting career.
S Hanumaiah Prakash was Shivaji’s next door neighbour and the two attended the Acharya Pathasala public school in NR Colony. “Apart from being childhood friends from the age of six, Shivaji and I went to the AP high school where I was in the Kannada medium and he was in English. He was a smart and chirpy chap then and a storyteller for common classes when teachers were absent. I still remember him standing in front of the class and animatedly narrating the Vikram Betal story,” reminisces Hanumaiah who became a bank official with Karnataka Bank.

With his father retiring from service and his elder brother employed with Bengaluru MahanagaravPalike (BMP) in a menial post, Rajinikanth’s childhood was poverty driven and filled with struggle. But his area friends recall his frolicking younger days when he was the main fast bowler in the local cricket team. “Shivaji used to serve at the Ramakrishna Math on Bull Temple Road from when he was a boy and their annual day is when he would take the stage to act in plays. In one such instance he acted as a farmer which was well appreciated,” added Hanumaiah pointing to a childhood Rajinikanth on an old group photograph of the actors from the play.
First job as proofreader
Sadly, the boy’s gang of Hanumanthanagar flopped in the SSLC examination of 1966 with all including Shivaji Rao failing in mathematics. “We all failed in Maths and remained clueless in our poverty-stricken life. That’s when our friend Ramachandra Rao who had joined Samyukta Karnataka newspaper as a proofreader told us they are hiring. I remember Shivaji and I walking all the way to its Richmond Road office in 1967 for the interview,” recalled JN Raja Rao, Rajanna to his friends including the superstar.

Rajanna remembers Shivaji and him starting work as a Kannada proofreader for a monthly pay of Rs 150 for duty on three shifts. “Shivaji left within five months as he didn’t like the job,” said Rajanna who also left in nine months to join Karnataka Milk Federation from where he retired.
To make ends meet, Shivaji went on to work as a loadman in the Tharagupet market and later joined as an office boy in the area while he passed his class 10 in the third attempt.
Conductor calling
In the late 1970s, Shivaji’s second brother Nagesh Rao’s father-in-law Venkoba Rao who worked as a vehicle inspector with then Bangalore Transport Service (BTS) alerted on a bus conductor vacancy. “My grandfather Venkoba Rao used to tell us bedtime stories on how Shivaji chikkappa took up the exam and went on a twoweek training before joining as conductor in 1971,” recalled Mahalakshmi Bai, Rajinikanth’s niece.
Shivaji’s acting took shape with the theatre hosted by BTS employee’s union in Majestic where he once played a notable role of Duryodhana in a play titled Kurukshetra in 1972 when he spewed a ball of fire on stage using kerosene from his mouth. “It was not in the script but Shivaji surprisingly spat fire to make the scene realistic. The incident was then widely spoken,” laughed Rajanna who was in the audience that evening.
During his conductor days, Rajini chanced upon the newspaper advertisement calling for candidates for the Kannada batch of the newly formed Madras Film Institute. “I remember it was a Thursday and Shivaji, Rajanna, Ramachandra and I sitting inside the Raghavendra Bhavan hotel, our usual hangout on our street. He was filling in the form and we sat around eyes pinned to the paper,” Hanumaiah laughed.
Shivaji’s admission card came in 15 days and the rest has been history.
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