Superstar vs “Superstar”

After the insanely interesting discussions on the color of Abhishek’s undergarments at the Abhi-Ash wedding , the news channels have a new pastime . Following the release of Sivaji , there have been a slew of debates on TV – Who is a bigger star ? Amitabh Bachchan or Rajnikanth .
I am a south-indian , but I have lived for over ten years in New Delhi and I have nothing against north indians or Hindi . I have seen more bollywood movies than south indian movies and I have seen almost every movie of Amitabh Bachchan . I used to like Amitabh once and I believe this is an opinion that many people will share with me that Amitabh Bachchan has lost his status as a legendary actor .

Amitabh started his career with Saat Hindustani way back in 1979 and become a big superstar with Zanjeer , which gave him ‘The angry young man’ tag , from then he delivered several super hits and has played out iconic roles in several movies .He tried his hand at politics at around 1984 and came back to cinema in 1988 with Shahenshah , which inspite of being a supremely retarded movie became a hit . Since then he has seen a lot of highs and lows , from the national award for Agneepath ( in which I still believe his mannerisms were inspired by a certain Tony Montana) and absolute bankruptcy with the fall of his company ABCL .
His comeback started with the launch of ‘Kaun Banega Crorepati’ – An Indian version of ‘Who wants to be a millionare’ . In 2000 he starred with SRK in Yash Chopra’s ( read stupid old man) movie ‘Mohabattien’ (which i thought was soft porn in disguise) , and from then there has been no looking back . Mr Bachchan has had a big small or tiny role in every major bollywood production . If you watch TV for a whole day, chances are that you’ll see Amitabh’s face a couple of hundred times in various Ad’s, he endorses brands ranging from massage oil to cement to a beauty cream ( that’s right! a 60 year old man endorses a f***ing beauty cream) .
If you look at legendary actors , people who define cinema .. let it be Dilip Kumar from Bollywood , Al Pachino or De Niro from the West or the late Dr Rajkumar closer home , one thing remains common among them – they don’t indulge in such mediocrity, fans wait for thier movies to be released , and sometimes they have to wait for years to catch a glimpse of their favorite actors on the big screen, but all this does not seem to apply to Mr Bachchan , just turn on the TV or visit the theaters next week , you’ll see him doing something or the other , hell you can even catch a glimpse of him in some Bhojpuri movie . When he is not acting or modeling he’s busy conning the government posing as a farmer .

Take Rajnikanth on the other hand , his fan following beats that of Amitabh’s by millions, he has devotees in every part of the world , even in Japan where tamil must sound like a hive of bee’s to the Japanese, he has a loyal following . When a Rajnikanth movie releases , usually in intervals of 2-3 years . The amount of hype and media attention it generates is enormous . He holds great power over the people in Tamil Nadu , but he does not do ads for some political party unlike Mr Bachchan. He is also known for his philanthropy and he donates a lot of his earning for noble causes.
I do not understand Tamil , and I have seen only a couple of Rajnikanth’s movies , but I can differentiate between a Superstar and a “Superstar” . Both Rajnikanth and Amitabh started of together in the 70’s , but somewhere along the way Big B lost it , and F**k the wax statue cause even Jenna Jameson has one . Here is a comparative analysis for the naysayers

Registered fan clubs : Big B – 20 and Rajnikanth – 60000 +
Number of countries in which Rajnikanth’s films release and run over a year on an average – 29
Payoff: Big B – Rs. 3 Crore and Rajnkanth close to Rs. 30 crore