How Superstar Rajni's Super Fan made it Big

The release of Sivaji, the Boss, Friday, has rekindled the Rajni craze in the city and basking in the superstar’s reflected glory is V Harsha, the Rajnikanth Fans Association’s President, V. Harsha. The superstar’s super fan has himself a success story to tell, and you guessed it, owes all his success to his inspirational “god, guru and goodness personified” Rajni.

Somewhat mysteriously, every time a Rajni film is released, Harsha has always laughed his way to the bank, and found his pot of gold. When Annamalai was released, Harsha, was a cigarette vendor, but the movie totally changed him and from then on, he started working very hard. When Muthu came, he bought a cycle and went into real estate business. After Arunachalam, he bought himself a two-wheeler, and somehow fate transpired in a way where he went on to amass wealth each time a Rajni film hit the screens. Padayappa, brought in for him, a Maruti Zen, Chandramukhi, a Scorpio.

What will Sivaji bring him, you ask, and he says without any trace of a doubt, ‘the best of the cars in town’. Call it superstition, or hard work, but he insists that Rajni for him is a talisman for luck and wealth. Get inspired by Rajni, work very hard, and your life will be transformed, is his motto. Sounds right, for it echoes the rags to riches story of Rajnikanth himself.

Today, Harsha is the “Boss” for 40 people working under him at Mahaveer Enterprises, and claims he too, like Rajni, does not differentiate between employer and employee.

“Usually people pray that if their wish is fulfilled they will go to Tirupati or some holy place, and promise to even offer huge amounts of money, but I pray that the Rajnikanth movie should be successful and run 100 days or more and once that happens I don’t go to any holy place but rather spend the same amount of money on the poor and the needy,” says Harsha. “For me, the release of a Rajni film is a big festival, like Deepavali or Pongal.” Harsha says he spends as much as Rs four lakhs every time a Rajni film is released, on various activities like poor feeding, publicity expenses on the film, etc. He has even named his daugher, Aishwarya, after Rajni’s daughter.