Rajinikanth pays surprise visit to BMTC, goes down memory lane

PTI, Aug 29, 2023, 2:36 PM IST

Superstar Rajinikanth on Tuesday walked down the memory lane as he visited the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC) bus stand, in the city where he once worked as a bus conductor.

The 72-year-old top actor took everyone by surprise and spent a few minutes with overjoyed BMTC drivers, conductors and other staff at the bus stand at Jayanagar. Shivaji Rao Gaikwad was once working as bus conductor in this city, before the legendary Tamil director, the late K Balachander spotted him, christened him Rajinikanth and gave the actor his first break in the hit flick ‘Aboorva Ragangal’ in 1975. The film also starred Kamal Haasan among others.

The moment the actor, who is said to have turned nostalgic, made an appearance, the Traffic Transit Management Center (TTMC) staff of the BMTC greeted him and milled around him. He chatted with them for a while and also posed for selfies.

The actor also paid a visit to Raghavendra Swami Math here. Rajinikanth had donned the titular role in the movie ‘Sri Raghavendrar’, a biography of the 16th-17th century saint-poet of Madhva Sampradaya of Dvaita Vedanta philosophy.

Sources said Rajinikanth spent his childhood in Bengaluru, and lived in the city till the age of 22 before shifting to Chennai to pursue his film career. Prior to that, he worked as a conductor in the erstwhile Bangalore Transport Services (BTS), which is now known as BMTC. Rajinikanth had returned to the silver screen after almost two years with the Nelson Dilipkumar directorial ‘Jailer’, released earlier this month and said to be a box office grosser.