Rajinikanth once expected his Hindi film career to follow the path Kamal Haasan had already walked. In an interview with Eve’s Weekly in December 1982, republished this week, the actor said Kamal’s success in Bombay was the reason he tried his luck there at all. The Rajinikanth Bollywood career that followed took its own course, but it began in Kamal’s wake.
“I do not deny that Kamal Haasan has been a pioneer in this manner. His success in Bombay has given me the impetus to try my luck in Bombay,” Rajinikanth said in the interview. Kamal’s Ek Duuje Ke Liye, released in 1981, had become a big hit in Hindi, and producers in Bombay were watching to see whether Rajinikanth could do the same.
Rajinikanth Bollywood career: the 1982 interview
At the time of the interview, the Rajinikanth Bollywood career was only just beginning, and he was 32 and already a major star in South Indian cinema. He was working in two Hindi films made by South Indian producers in Madras: Andha Kanoon, in which he was cast with Reena Roy, Madhavi, Hema Malini and Amitabh Bachchan, and Jawab Ka Jawab, with Rakesh Roshan and Anita Raaj. Bombay producers were waiting on his Hindi debut before offering more work.
Rajinikanth was frank about his own expectations. “Let alone becoming a star, I didn’t even dream that, with the kind of face that I have I would even become an extra,” he said. “Whatever is pre-ordained has got to happen. You cannot change your destiny.” He had worked as a bus conductor in Bangalore for five years before K. Balachander spotted him at the Adyar Film Institute and gave him his break in Apoorva Ragangal in 1975.
By 1982 he had acted in almost 50 films across four southern languages. He told the interviewer he did not want to sign films indiscriminately and overexpose himself, and that he would not work in a film only for money. He wanted a meaty role that called for a performance, and he had turned down offers that would have left him with the image of a tough hero.
Rajinikanth Bollywood career after Andhaa Kanoon
Andhaa Kanoon, released in 1983, became a hit, and Rajinikanth has said the part came his way because Amitabh Bachchan suggested his name to the producers and promised to do a guest role if they cast him. The film ranked among the five highest grossing films of 1983. More Hindi films followed, including John Jani Janardhan in 1984, Geraftaar in 1985 and Hum in 1991, and the Rajinikanth Bollywood career ran to 28 Hindi films in all.
Kamal, meanwhile, gave up on the Hindi film world after Saagar in 1985, while the Rajinikanth Bollywood career carried on. The two had started together under Balachander, and they last shared the screen in Hindi in Geraftaar in 1985. Both returned to their standing in the south, where Rajinikanth’s career reached a new level with Thalapathi in 1991, Baashha in 1995 and Muthu in 1995.
The Rajinikanth Bollywood career ended up lasting longer than Kamal’s, but it never matched his Tamil stardom. Most of his Hindi films gave him ensemble parts below his southern image, and Bombay production delays made it hard to split his time between the two cities. By the 1990s, the sums on offer for central roles in Tamil films made the Hindi detours hard to justify, and he stopped doing Hindi films altogether.
Rajinikanth Bollywood career and the road since
The two actors have stayed close friends across the decades, and Rajinikanth has said of Kamal, “He never let me fall,” recalling that in 1983, when he wanted to leave everything behind, it was Kamal who talked him back to the material world. At the Dharman launch event in June this year, Rajinikanth recalled how Kamal pushed him to act in Ilamai Oonjal Aadukirathu, calling the director to insist on the casting and then calling Rajinikanth to make him adjust his dates.
That friendship is now turning into work again. The Rajinikanth Bollywood career began with Kamal’s success opening the door, and it continues now with Kamal’s company backing his new film. Dharman, Rajinikanth’s next film, is co-produced by Kamal’s banner Raaj Kamal Films International, and the two are set to share the screen in KHxRK, directed by Nelson Dilipkumar, their first film together in more than four decades. Rajinikanth was last seen in Jailer 2, which released on 15 October 2026.
The 1982 interview records a fork in the road. Rajinikanth went to Bombay expecting to follow Kamal, and he stayed longer than Kamal did. The Rajinikanth Bollywood career that resulted gave him 28 films, a handful of hits and a national profile, and then he went home to the Tamil cinema where he had started.