For fans of Superstar Rajinikanth over the years, the first day of his movie’s release has been nothing short of celebrating a festival.
From giant cut outs, to banners and crackers as well as special pujas being performed ahead of the movie’s release, the fans have been coming together for the last few decades to celebrate every Rajini movie release with equal gusto and fanfare.
Ezhumalai, an auto driver in his mid forties, says he has been watching the First-day first show (FDFS) of all Rajinikanth movies since Annamalai released in 1992. “We then had just one cut out of the actor and never did spend as much as there were no flex banners back then. For the last few years, we have been spending 10 times the money we used to and for Kabali’s release, our fan club has kept firecrackers worth Rs 1 lakh ready,” he said.
Recalling how he saw ‘Baasha’ on the first day of release with his friend Ravi, a forty-eight-year-old fan of the superstar, who is currently in the hospital as he is ill, Mr. Ezhumalai said that his friend had already asked the doctors to allow him to watch the movie on the first day.
“The doctors have asked him to rest for a week but it is going to be tough to keep him in the hospital,” he laughs.
“We watch his movies at least 10 to 15 times and it never seems enough for any of us fans. This time, a few of us have decided to also watch the movie a week later so that the general public watching the movie will get to experience the fan excitement,” a fan of the actor from the city said.
Fans take to technology
With the recent emergence of fan clubs which have a strong presence online as well, there have been a host of new activities ahead of the release of Rajini’s movies — with many aiming to be socially responsible.
“A few days back, our fan club had a ‘flash mob’ in a theatre here to create awareness against piracy,” said S. Karthik, founder of the ‘Rajini Biggest Superstar of India (RBSI) page on Facebook which has 3 lakh odd members.
Charitable causes too
Mr. Karthik said that inspired by the actor, they are involved in charitable causes. “Since we’ve heard that Kabali also focuses on the plight of labourers in Malaysia, we are going to distribute helmets, gloves and other protective gear to construction workers in Chennai soon,” he said. While the celebrations have evolved over the years, Subbu, a Rajini fan and a filmmaker said that many abroad were trying to emulate what they saw during their childhood in the theatres here.
Stating that the ‘Thalaivar’ brand was a major hit, he pointed out the need for more iconic merchandise to remember the release of his films. “While I come up with a limited edition set of T-shirts and posters, fan clubs separately have their own T-shirts,” he said.
