6 May 2014

CHENNAI: Two days after he joined Twitter, superstar Rajinikanth (pic) garnered more than 277,000 followers on his micro-blogging site and the numbers are increasing by the minute.

"Naan oru thadava sonna, nooru thadava sonna maadiri" (If I say something once, it’s like I have said it a hundred times) goes the famous punchline from Rajinikanth’s superhit film "Baasha." But if the Tamil superstar has said it on Twitter, make that 5,000.

On Monday, Rajinikanth became the first top Tamil film star to join microblogging site Twitter and even before he sent his first tweet he had nearly 17,000 followers. And when he finally did send out his first tweet at around four in the evening, it was retweeted at least 5,000 times by his fans.

"Salutation to the Lord. Vanakkam anaivarukkum!! A big thank you to all my fans. Excited on this digital journey," the 63-year-old actor tweeted from his handle @SuperStarRajini, which was verified within hours by Twitter.

CA Media Digital’s first venture Fluence, a celebrity digital network, will manage Rajinikanth’s digital interests, including his Twitter handle.

"I have always believed that my career graph is a miracle I owe my fans. I have been contemplating joining the social media platform for a while to connect with them, hear what they have to say and share my thoughts. Unfortunately I never got around to it until now," Rajinikanth was quoted as saying in a statement.

"I decided to start with Twitter because I felt that the platform is abuzz with all the news and the trends that happen across the globe and I'm told that this is where all the best Rajini one liners are!" Rajinikanth joins other top Indian actors like Amitabh Bachchan, who joined Twitter in May 2010 and has 8.61 million followers, and Shah Rukh Khan with 7.51 million. Other top Tamil stars like Kamal Haasan, Vijay, Ajith Kumar, Suriya have all stayed away from Twitter so far.

A few minutes after Rajinikanth joined, Twitter India posted the message: "Vanakkam, Namaste, Salaam, Hello Rajinikanth! Please join us in welcoming @SuperStar-Rajini to Twitter." Though fans were excited about the star entering the social media, critics pointed out that this is just another publicity stunt for his upcoming film "Kochadaiiyaan" that is scheduled to release this week.

"I definitely salute the man for joining Twitter at this age as he has never lent his brand to anyone till date," said a film analyst on condition of anonymity. "However, Twitter is a personal space where one shares his or her views, feelings, thoughts and ideas. What is the point of outsourcing to a third party?" Harish Bijoor, brand expert and CEO of Harish Bijoor Consults Inc, agrees. "I’m thrilled that Rajinikanth has joined Twitter. But I’m disappointed that after the first tweet followers are being bombarded by Kochadaiiyaan posters," he said.