Rajinikanth doesn’t wear a watch. He decides what time it is, and his calendar goes straight from March 31 to April 2—because NOBODY can fool Rajinikanth.
Ever come across lines like these? Well sure, some of them are said to be inspired by Chuck Norris jokes, but well, if you don’t like them, you’d better run when you have the chance; because Rajinikanth is watching. Mind it.
Movies, first introduced as a means of recreation, have evolved over time and have gained the power to inspire, and ignite the soul, as with any other form of art. India especially stands witness to this fact, with its actors having a cult status, and devotees who are determinedly loyal to their favorite stars.
Actors like Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan especially are privy to this kind of god-like-status with the masses; and one question that continues to plague South India is that of who is better at the trade—the iconic Kamal Haasan or idolized Rajinikanth?
1. If you played by numbers, Rajinikanth is older than Kamal, but entered the film industry later than the latter. The ‘Superstar’ of Tamil cinema made more than a whopping 150 films since 1975, while Kamal Haasan had his first performance when he was just four years old, and since 1959, he has acted in over 300 movies.
2. And if you went by popularity, there are reports that Rajini has over 63000 fan clubs worldwide for his acting style, with admirers even in Japan after his movie “Muthu” got dubbed to Japanese. Muthu's success in Japan led Newsweek, an American news magazine to comment in 1999 that Rajinikanth had “supplanted Leonardo DiCaprio as Japan's trendiest heartthrob.” The Superstar has received six Tamil Nadu State Film Awards for the Best Actor , and one Filmfare award for the movie ‘Nallavanukku Nallavan’.
But where Rajini scores in style, Kamal Haasan makes up with acting performance. He is measured as one of the leading method actors of Indian cinema, and is known for having starred in the largest number of films submitted by India for the Oscars (i.e. Academy Awards) for the Best Foreign Language Film category.
3. "Well what about the movies they starred in?", you ask.
Well Rajini’s latest film released, Enthiran (‘Robot’ in Hindi) was the most expensive Indian film ever made as of 2010, and ultimately went on to become the highest-grossing film in India of its time. Enthiran also made it to the top 50 on IMDB’s (Internet Movie Database) list of top-205 films of the world in 2010, and is the only Tamil film to be featured on this list. Few memorable hits of the Superstar of the South include ‘Badsha’, ‘Billa’, and ‘Padaiyappa’ among a long list.
And on the same note, Kamal Haasan’s Dasavathaaram, (a movie in which he portrayed 10 different roles), is known to be one of the first modern sci-fi films made in India that the actor co-wrote along with the film's director (K. S. Ravikumar). It also remains one of the most expensive Indian films ever made. The film became the first highest grossing film ever in Tamil cinema as of 2008, and won him critical acclaim for his performance. The film was distributed by Walt Disney Pictures in Canada, the first Tamil film to have been distributed by the company. It ultimately grossed more than 2 billion worldwide. Kamal’s other hits include ‘Nayagan’, (a movie that saw him earning his third Indian National Award and was listed in TIME Magazine’s “All TIME-100 movies” list), ‘Moondram Pirai’ (‘Sadhma’ in Hindi), and ‘Thevar Magan’ (‘Virasat’ in Hindi).
4. Both stars have been actively involved in helping the society through charitable acts, and donations, and helped pay back their distributors in case their films didn’t do well at the box office.
So the question remains—who is the best? Nobody, not even Google knows (we haven’t tried asking Rajini yet).