When Rajini was working as a conductor his salary was around Rs.750
His friend Raj Bahadur, with whom he is still close, encouraged him to pursue his dreams and become an actor. Bahadur asked him to enrol in the Madras Film Institute.
After playing several negative roles and characters with grey shades, his first positive role was in S P Muthuraman's Bhuvana Oru Kelvikkuri.
Moondru Moogam had Rajini playing a triple role for the first time. It earned him a Best Actor award from the Tamil Nadu government.
In 1988, Rajinikanth made an appearance in the English action adventure Bloodstone.
Enthiran is the only Tamil film that made it into IMDb's Top 50 films from around the world list in 2010.
Meena is the only actress who has acted with him as a child artist and then as his heroine.
A few of Rajini's fans started a political party called Desiya Dravadar Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam in 2008 to pressure him to enter politics.