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South India - Check. Japan - Check. UK - Check. Rajni capturing one country at a time.

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Most people who follow Indian cinema have at some point heard about The Superstar Rajnikanth. From the buses of Karnataka, he grew to new heights. The southern states of Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka contribute a huge chunk of his fans. And recently I figured that he is the second highest paid actor in South Asia, only behind Jackie Chan.

A few years ago, he found new fans in Japan. A television channel showed Muthu, one of Rajni’s movies and the following began.

Takashi Miyamoto a high school teacher in Japan was reported as saying

he and his friends were absolutely thrilled by the antics of the movie’s hero, Rajnikanth. He also found the spirit of `Muthu’ extremely sunny and positive. “There is so much of humour in it. One never finds this in Japanese cinema”, he added with a chuckle.

So much so that the Japanese fans knew practically nothing about India. “Elephants” was the answer from one of the fans, but they knew every single detail about Muthu.

There have been incidents of fans (and a Buddhist monk was among them) traveling from Japan to India to catch the premier of his movie Chandramukhi.

Rajnifans.com has a detailed article about the Japanese fans.

Ever since ‘Muthu’ hit the Japanese theatres a decade ago, Kawa had actually travelled to Chennai at least eight times to watch as many Rajni films as possible and hopefully meet him too. He has not succeeded so far. But that would not deter him from coming here.

Miyura, a software engineer, had told his office back in Osaka in Japan that he had a family errand to attend to in India. Swinging to Rajini’s evergreen hit ‘Autokkaaran’ from ‘Basha’, played in the hotel, he said, ‘‘You see, I have come with a lot of expectation just to watch our hero’s film. I am sure he will not disappoint me.’’ Sima, a film critic in the group, explained: ‘‘People over there like his frillless, simple, straight acting. They indeed find him better than even Hollywood heroes, refreshingly different from the flock they are used to. Ever since ‘Muthu’ was released as an experimental measure in the nineties, believe me he has become a rage, among different sections…there are eight fan clubs for him in our country

After the Far East, now Rajni fever seems to have gripped the UK.

He is not the average Hollywood hero but that doesn’t stop students from London’s University of Arts from officially declaring themselves as fans of Tamil superstar Rajnikanth.

I think the most fascinating thing about Rajnikanth is his appeal. He seems to appeal to both the young and the old

And very rightly put. I know my little cousins who enjoy the movie as much as my grandfather does.

Why is Rajni so popular? Please allow me to present a few scenes from his movies.

Indian cinemas do use animals and Rajni is very comfortable with them. Let us begin with Snakes, yeah yeah, India - Elephants -Snakes, we have heard it before and for the last time, no we do not go to school on Elephants.

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Besides animals, he also has very good hand-eye-lip coordination. (forward to 00:20)

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Works wonders with furniture,

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Influences the climate pattern and is capable of creating tornadoes,

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Offers advanced business tactics not taught in any business school. (sorry this one is in tamil)

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Yes he has two left feet,

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But he can do a lot of damage with minimal ammo

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And he always has advice for the masses. Be it on Love, Marriage or life (Again, this one is in Tamil)

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And this is very Rajnish, not sure what movie it is from, but everyone will agree that it is Rajni/Bollywood inspired.

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