Rajinikanth, the style icon: How the superstar defined swag for generations of fans

​I vividly remember my late father calling me every time a Rajinikanth song played on TV. Somehow, even though much from that age is a blur, I recollect the excitement with which I would run to pick up a black coat with big white buttons on it — that was the closest I had to the ones the star wore in Baashhaand Padayappa. I had to put on my ‘Rajini jacket,’ grab sunglasses, and dance in front of my ever-encouraging audience. It felt like an experience uniquely my own — at least until I grew up and realised that Superstar Rajinikanth is a phenomenon who peddled dreams, instilled hope, and defined style to millions, a journey now spanning 50 years.

​For actor Manikandan K (of Jai Bhim, Good Night and Lover fame), the spell was cast quite early as well, by a shot of Rajini lighting up a matchstick with nothing but his gaze. “At that age — I must have been three or four — I believed that maybe Rajini sir could really light up things by just looking at them. He had the charisma to sell that illusion to a child. But Rajini sir’s greatness lies in this: Sivaji released when I was studying in college, and even in that film, there’s a shot in a song where he returns a bullet shot at him by merely looking at it. And even after growing up, I enjoyed that a lot.”

​Smoking is integral in Rajini’s arsenal of style statements; from Moondru Mudichu to the recently released Coolie, only he could make a vice look that cool. Even school children used to roll sheets of paper to emulate his iconic cigarette flip (throwing and catching it smoothly between the lips). This, of course, has had its own share of criticism, as it allegedly incited youth to start smoking.

“Look, ‘Rajinism’ came to be because youngsters saw themselves in Rajinikanth — he was a dark-skinned man who instilled self-esteem in young southern Indian men. He was the hero they could be. The flipside was that many, like myself, picked up smoking along with everything else,” says 40-year-old Erode-based auditor and an ardent fan, Narendar B, adding that perhaps he should have considered the star’s no-smoking advice.

“I don’t smoke, but I used to do the cigarette flip with pencils when I was in school. You can’t flip a full-sized pencil, obviously, so I’d wait till it reaches the right size to do it,” reminisces Sathyakumaran G, a 36-year-old Chennai-based software engineer and a diehard fan. Rajinikanth’s iconic sunglass flip captivated Sathyakumaran. “Whenever a film releases, I would somehow buy the sunglasses in the shape that he wears in that film, and click some 10 pictures wearing them. I used to perform his sunglass flip well when I was about 9 or 10 years old, and even now, I do it to show off to my children,” he adds.

It is not mere luck that an actor’s name has become a style statement by itself — even ‘style’ looks much cooler with ‘Rajini’ as a prefix. From how he opens a bottle of cola (like in a rare commercial for the government-owned cola product Palm Cola), the way he pops bubble gum, to something as ordinary as pulling the coats to slip hands into pockets, or simply walking, Rajinikanth has often shown an instinct for turning even the simplest acts into something larger-than-life. But the aura of the superstar is not just about the cigarette-flips and sunglasses. He single-handedly influenced how Tamil men, and possibly even women, dressed and carried themselves.

Rajinikanth, the trendsetter: ‘Stylelu stylelu thaan, ithu super stylelu thaan’

Even today, the star’s many outfits from the ‘80s remain chic and contemporary. Sathyakumaran reminisces about a T-shirt the star wore in the double-action film Johnny, which features arguably one of the most charming on-screen Rajinis. “He wore a T-shirt that reads ‘Music The Life Giver’ with a denim jacket. In a specific scene, wearing a white overcoat, he lit a cigarette while leaning on a pillar. Be it that pipe, the thick-framed glasses, or the hairstyle he opted for… he looked so elegant.”

Speaking of hairstyles, Manikandan reminds us of how the star carried off his centre-parting. “The song ‘Rajavukku Raja Naan Thaan’ comes to mind. Also, he was so handsome in the ‘Malayala Karayoram’ song from Rajadhi Raja; in fact, that is his best look in my opinion,” says the actor. Narendar says he still flips his hair back the way Rajini did in countless films. “It’s so ingrained. There’s this staple Rajini hairstyle that is so hard to maintain but looks slick on thalaivar,” says the fan.

Many on-screen outfits have become local fads. ”In Padayappa, he wore a pair of jeans that had pockets near the knees. My family bought those jeans for me. I remember wearing it to school on that one day that we were allowed to coloured clothes,” recollects Manikandan.

The star’s denim outfits, worn in films like Uzhaippali and Raja Chinna Roja, seem to have a fandom on their own. “Also, there’s a photoshoot of a clean-shaven thalaivar wearing denim — he looked so dapper in it. He didn’t recreate that look in any of his films,” points out Sathyakumaran.

​Costume designer Praveen Raja, who styled the superstar in his latest film Coolie, agrees that there is something special about how a denim-on-denim outfit rests on Rajini. “The first thing we shot was the poster in which he wears a denim-on-denim. Director Lokesh Kanagaraj’s gist for me was that the look had to emulate Thalapathy — that it had to be a slipper, a denim, and a shirt.” The denim look in Padayappa, Praveen adds, is his personal favourite of the superstar.

Interestingly, denim has taken over theatres in Tamil Nadu ever since Coolie released on August 14 — all thanks to Anirudh Ravichander’s ‘Chikutu,’ a T Rajendar-styled earworm that features Rajini in a denim-on-denim. “Right from the day the song was released, people began to wear denim-on-denim outfits. Later, after the audio launch, I saw many wearing that outfit. Even Lokesh wore denim-on-denim for the interviews during the film’s promotion,” says Praveen, who was elated by how even the ‘Coolie badge’ from the film has become a part of the ensemble audiences wear to watch Coolie.

Padayappa also featured one of the many times the superstar has donned an oversized jacket. “The denim shirt, the printed shirt, and that dark blazer that he wore in the ‘Kikku Yerudhey’ song were all trendsetting,” Praveen says. He grew up watching the star wear oversized jackets in films like Mannan and Rajadhi Raja. “In fact, we tried the oversized fit in Coolie — for the denim shirt you see in the photoshoot with the watches.”

Sathyakumar gets nostalgic about the white overalls from Padayappa. “He paired it with a brown shawl. There are many films, like Manithan and Arunachalam, in which he looks so charismatic in white-and-white,” says the fan, mentioning how a specific T-shirt from Pandian became a popular fad. “It was a plain T-shirt with a tick mark” — many outfits in the film featured a tick — “As a child, I used to wear that shirt, despite it being oversized.”

Baba, though being a forgettable outing for the superstar, found a special place among fans for thalaivar’s looks. “We started wearing a lot of light blue shirts with black pants after Baba. The headband also became a trend; whenever we came across a red towel, we would tie it on our heads and click pictures,” says Sathyakumaran.

​Rajini also glamorised the big boots that had you tuck in the pants. The white shoes in Annaamalai, the thundu he wears around his waist in Muthu, and the iconic scarf he dons in Thalapathy were all special looks that became a trend in the ‘90s Tamil Nadu, say fans.

​Understanding Rajinism: Born talent, or a skill learned from sheer perseverance?

Even after 50 years since his debut, the mystique of Rajinikanth still puzzles many, for the silver screen is yet to see a star with such grace, swag, and original ideas. “Perhaps there may never come a star in Tamil with mannerisms that aren’t inspired by Rajini sir,” says Narendar.

Is this talent he was born with? Manikandan disagrees. “Like the Duryodhana incident (about how he had to improvise to make the ‘Mahabharata’ character look menacing on stage) that he recited at the audio launch of Jailer, it all comes down to one philosophy that he staunchly follows — to do things differently. Walking is a mundane thing, but with Rajini sir, it looks different,” says the actor who shared screen with the superstar in Kaala. “That’s a talent he got from years of practice. He questions why something is done a certain way and tries to change it, but he won’t do that just for the sake of doing something different; he effortlessly convinces you,” says Manikandan. He explains how the superstar told him about the many hours that had gone into perfecting his signature cigarette flip.

​Sathyakumaran and Narendar remind us of the several instances where Rajini credited late legendary Sivaji Ganesan as an inspiration. “The swiftness was, of course, natural to thalaivar. In fact, Sivaji had made smoking look stylish in many films. Sivaji sir used to do it slowly, but our thalaivar is quite fast,” says Sathyakumaran.

​From how Praveen describes his experience working with the star, you get the sense of a man who wishes to redefine himself, even at 74. “He is still in his styling era. He knows what’s running in the trends. To date, whatever you give him, he will wear it and stand in front of the mirror. He will do the standing pose and see how it feels when he moves; only if he is confident, he will say, ‘Let’s proceed.’”

Now, 50 years after his debut, Rajinikanth still has impact on our wardrobes. Watching fans dress up for Coolie, I think about why that ‘Rajini jacket’ meant so much to me — and I realise I did not just emulate him to look cool. He was one of my first heroes. Teenagers insecure about their looks need a role model to teach them swag, self-assurance and the sense that they are worthy of love. Just putting on my Rajini jacket gave me that confidence. As they say, “thalaivar nirandharam” — this legacy is for all eternity.