Friday, March 7, 2008: (Chennai):

'House full' boards and frenzy at theatres screening Rajinikanth movies are almost the norm in South India. Now book stores may need to take lessons in crowd management from theatres.There will be Rajinikanth magic through this new medium. A young doctor, who is also superstar's diehard fan, has written a book on his life. The biography was released in Chennai and almost 20,000 copies of The Name Is Rajinikanth, which is considered huge for the first print of any biography, have just hit the stands. Though Rajini didn't turn up but he sent his director daughter Soundarya with a message."It's a tribute and he's very happy that someone has taken this effort," said Soundarya Rajinikanth.The 384 page book is replete with interesting snippets about the superstar from his childhood, his rise to the top, his spiritual bent, his rapport with co-stars like Kamal Haasan and also the possibility of a political plunge. There's an interesting bit about how Rajinikanth's offer to the governments of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to go into the forests to get Veerappan to release Kannada actor Rajkumar was turned down. Rajinikanth is said to have called Veerapan "a devil who must be slayed when sighted." Later, after Rajkumar's release, Rajinikanth is supposed to have sneaked into the Kannada idol's high security residence disguised as a Godman from Kasi!"I've concentrated a lot on his spiritualism," said Dr Gayathri Sreekanth, author.In a few months this book will be translated into Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi. There's also a special translation for fans in a far away centre of Rajini mania - Japan!