Vijayawada: N T Rama Rao is my inspiration, says Rajinikanth

Vijayawada : "If a bus conductor Rajinikanth has become a super star, the credit goes to the legendary figure and one and only N T Rama Rao," said Shivaji Rao Gaikwad, known professionally as Rajinikanth.

He was speaking at the third mammoth meeting to celebrate the centenary celebrations of NTR.

Rajinikanth said that at the age of six he had seen the movie Patala Bhairavi. He was awestruck by the 20-ft statue of Bhairavi and it had left a deep impression on him throughout his life. Incidentally, the title of the first film he acted as a hero was also Bhairavi.

Rajinikanth said that he was reluctant to act as hero in films but it was the title Bhairavi which made to become a hero and since then there was no looking back. He said he had seen NTR physically in 1963 at the age of 13 years in Bengaluru Minerva Theatre where Lava Kusa was being screened. In 1966, he said, he had seen Srikrishna Pandaveeyam and was mesmerised the way NTR lived in the character of Duryodhana.

The superstar said he had later imitated the style of NTR. He also tried to imitate NTR's dialogue delivery as Duryodhana in a drama and that was his first step to enter the film industry as an actor.

He said he was fortunate to act with NTR in a film called Tiger. He said that once he tried to replicate dialogue by dialogue, scene by scene as Duryodhana in a movie with similar costumes and jewellery. But those who saw the shooting said he was looking like a "monkey" and he gave up his experiment. Rajnikanth praised TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu and said he had not seen such a visionary. He said he had seen how Hyderabad used to be three decades ago and how it has been transformed now. The credit goes to Naidu, he added. Referring to actor-turned politician Nandamuri Balakrishna, Rajnikanth said people will accept if cars fly in air when he hits the ground with his foot, but if same action is done by Amitabh or Salman Khan or Shahrukh or anyone, the audience would reject the same. Thanking Rajnikanth, Naidu recalled his experience when he went to Japan. He said Japanese said India has an actor called Rajnikanth and they had seen some of his movies though they do not understand the language. The meeting passed a resolution once again demanding Bharat Ratna for NTR.