The grand audio launch event of the much-awaited Rajinikanth starrer Jailer concluded last night. The event assembled the star studded cast of the film along with an army of Rajini fans and film lovers. As is custom with any Rajinikanth film, the main event of the audio launch was the moment when the superstar actor took to stage to speak about the film, share personal anecdotes, and words of wisdom to his fans.
On how the project began, Rajinikanth said, “I heard many stories after Annaathe but everything was similar to Baasha or Annamalai. They were all trying to be huge in scale. I rejected so many scripts that I felt bad and stopped listening to scripts all together.” He then addressed the online controversy after Nelson’s previous outing Beast start getting negative reviews. The film was relentlessly criticised online, which led to some fans demanding that Sun Pictures replace Nelson for their upcoming film with Rajinikanth with some other director. However, Rajinikanth put an end to all the rumours by changing his Twitter banner image to a Jailer promotional still with himself and Nelson in it. Rajinikanth recalled how he gained confidence in Nelson amid the Beast issue, he said, “We had an internal meeting at Sun Pictures where it was brought to notice that while Beast had a lot of negative reviews, the film did not lose money for the distributors.”
After appreciating lyricist Super Subu for his work in the song Hukum, the actor said his only feedback was to remove the word “Superstar” from the lyrics. He then playfully added, “The Superstar title is always a problem.” After registering his immense appreciation for actor Mohanlal, Rajinikanth spoke about how actor Tamannah is a very spiritual person. He then playfully commented how his producer Kalanithi Maran should get better players for his team Sunrisers Hyderabad because, “I don’t like seeing Kavya Maran all sad in the IPL stands.”
The actor then reminisced about his early years and how his experience acting in stage plays and the accolades he got for them were fundamental to the foundational confidence that launched his acting career and stardom in the later years in cinema. Talking about an incident that happened years before he came into the film industry, Rajinikanth recollected how he once came home drunk at 2 in the night after a successful staging of a play and how his brother advised him to only drink to celebrate and not make it a habit. He then went on to advise his fans about how drinking would bring ill health and suffering to everyone in their family. “Drinking alcohol was one of the biggest mistakes I made,” he confessed.
One of the key moments of the speech was when the actor addressed his sharp critics with a signature parable about how crows would continue to bother eagles. However, eagles would effortlessly get rid of the crows by simply soaring higher in the sky, with a lesser wing span and due to low oxygen holding capacity, the crows would never be able to reach the heights of the eagles. He then ended his address the negative comments against him with a couplet of sorts that goes, “There are no dogs that don’t bark and no tongues that don’t criticise, and then there are no places devoid of both.”
With thunderous applause and air filled with zealous energy, the event came to a close when the Rajinikanth thanked the his film’s crew, his producers, his fans, and signed off with his signature Superstar salute.