Rajinikanth’s adoring fans have inspired Amsterdam-based young filmmaker Rinku Kalsy to make a feature-length documentary on the Tamil superstar.
Titled ‘For the Love of a Man’, the documentary features the madness of the ‘Lingaa’ star’s admirers in Tamil Nadu during his illness. It also shows how fans exhaust their life’s investments on him before the release of a film.
“The whole idea of this documentary was looking at Rajini through the eyes of his fans. I spent four years with the fans in Tamil Nadu, trying to understand how they and their household functions when their star is ill and how it affects their households,” Rinku told PTI.
Rinku conceived the idea of making a documentary through a friend, who travels all the way from Michigan to teach kids in the small villages in Tamil Nadu.
“Joyjeet Pal (friend), who is also the producer of the documentary, used to tell me how small kids in Rajini’s State are affected by his stardom. Joyjeet teaches at Michigan University and he was travelling a lot to small places in Tamil Nadu to teach young kids.
“They aspire to be like his characters portrayed in the film. How they look up to Rajini and parents are also happy with their children’s decision of becoming like him. So, we thought we should explore this further,” she said.
Though Rinku did not get the chance to meet the 63—year—old actor, she believes that Rajinikanth has an idea about the documentary on him.
“I have seen him in many venues but I haven’t reached out to him personally yet. I do believe that he knows that we are doing this documentary on him,” she said.
The film, which is presented through the eyes of his fan, explores the journey of four main characters.
“There are four main protagonists in the documentary and each of them represents social aspiration. How people are using their own investments doing big poster release of Rajini which had nothing to do with Rajinikanth, his company or the distributors of his films. There is also a mimicry artiste, who is actually not a fan of Rajini but the fandom gives him three meals a day,” she said.
The filmmaker is also planning to hold a special screening for Rajinikanth before its February 2015 release.
“We definitely would like to show our film to Rajinikanth before releasing it worldwide,” said Rinku, who has also become a fan of the actor after meeting his crazy admirers.
