Ulaganayagan Kamal Haasan and Superstar Rajinikanth have been best friends for four decades. A throwback video of Kamal recalling how he met Rajinikanth for the first time in an interview with India Today TV has re-surfaced on social media. He said that he was on the verge of losing his friend Govindarajan to cancer at that time and when he saw Rajinikanth resemble his friend, he took a natural liking to him.
In an old interview, which was shot during the release of ‘Vikram’, Kamal Haasan explained how he met Rajinikanth for the first time.
He said, “I had a very close friend of mine named Govindarajan, who is no more now. We used to call him Govinda Haasan because he was like a brother to me – he was family. He was also a lawyer like my brother. So, they got along like a house of fire. One day, people told me he was unwell when I was shooting. We used to meet almost every day. Soon, they pronounced that he had malignant cancer. I was too young then and didn’t know how to take it.”
“I hadn’t understood that death is part of life. For me, I was traumatised. At that time, I was doing a film with K Balachander, where I was the lead. There was a cameo performance in the film for which they had chosen a person named Shivaji Rao (now Rajinikanth) from the Chennai film institute, but from Bengaluru. That’s all I knew about him. I’ve said hello to him a few times, he recalled.
Here’s the interview:
Kamal Haasan added, “His first shot was happening on one day and that day, my friend insisted on coming to the sets. He was unwell, but you have these rare remissions that you want to step out. I asked him to come.”
He then continued, “He had a french beard at that time. Since my makeup artist is from my company, he made Rajinikanth’s beard just like his after our conversations. Rajinikanth also had straight hair. That role he played, he was dying of cancer. So, he (Govindarajan) wanted to know. He said, ‘I like that guy, he’s got style. What’s the role he’s playing?’ And I couldn’t tell him.”
“Somehow, all the emotions turned to affection for Rajini. I keep telling him that. So, I think I superimposed the image of my friend on to him. And it’s stuck. We’ve been together since then. We agree to disagree but still, we’re friends,” he explained.
Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth acted together for the first time in K Balachander’s ‘Apoorva Ragangal’ in 1975. After the film’s success, the two acted in many films before parting ways.
Source Agencies
