Rajini next Indian star at Madame Tussaud's?

By: Settu Shankar
Thursday, October 25, 2007

In addition to Shahrukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and Amitabh Bachchan, Superstar Rajinikanth will now be offered a place at the prestigious Madame Tussaud's wax museum in London. This initiative is being takes in view of request by the Superstar"s fans for his wax statue to be displayed at the museum. The museum has received 11,453 petitions for the inclusion of the Superstar in the wax museums list on an online petition website.

The reasons why the museum should accommodate them as quoted by the viewers are the star"s global reach and the figures of his movies at the Box Office. The gross of his latest film Shivaji The Boss has been quoted in support of the statue. The exact number of responses on the site is 11,453. A few of the comments suggest the following: “Rajnikanth is India's highest-paid actor, and is often considered India's biggest star. He is a cult star in South India, which has a population of 300 million. His movies generate phenomenal response throughout India and the world. Rajnikanth's latest release, Shivaji entered the UK Top 10, and made an impact in the USA, Malaysia, Singapore, Middle East, Hong Kong and South Africa."

xRajini, some of the petitoners have said that , also has huge fan following in the Middle East, Srilanka, USA, Malaysia, Honk Kong and South Africa. Not only do Srilankan Tamils in Srilanka idolize him, even those abroad follow his movies. There are about a total of 2.6 lakh Srilankan Tamil is the France and the UK. Shivaji – The Boss was in the Top 10 list of films in the UK when it was released - the only Indian film to ever do so.Rajinikanth was even mentioned when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh addressed the Japanese Parliament saying that stars efforts were successful in uniting India and Japan.

In conclusion, the petitioners say, “Due to the above mentioned reasons, we believe a Rajnikanth waxwork at Madame Tussaud's will increase the number of visitors to London's Madame Tussaud's. Therefore, we recommend that you consider erecting a waxwork of Rajnikanth at Madame Tussaud's." The number of people on the petitions list is sure to sway the decision of the autorities in Madama Tussaud"s. A simlar petition has been ion favour of Kamla Hassan"s stature at the musuem which has attracted over 900 responses only.