Fans celebrate Rajini's birthday in Chennai

Chennai: December 12 is southern cinema superstar Rajinikanth's birthday.

On Friday fans step out with much fervour to mark his 58th birthday.

However, this time the celebrations have been simple and subdued because of the Sri lankan Tamil controversy and the Mumbai terror attacks.

Instead of bursting crackers and worshipping the superstar's cutouts by breaking coconuts and pouring milk, fans offered their prayers in temples and distributed food amongst the poor.

Rajinikanth fan P Sridhar says, "We wanted to remember this day. So we decided to help the poor by feeding them and conducted poojas in temples and kept the celebrations very simple."

The celebrations were low key in tune to Rajinikanth's request to his fans to refrain following the terror attacks on Mumbai and in reaction to what is happening to the Tamils in Sri Lanka.

However, his fans are hoping that Rajnikanth would give them other reasons to celebrate.

Fan Abdul Malik says, "We believe this year is going to be very important for him. We are all waiting for an important announcement from him about entering politics. So we are all praying for that."

The crackers and colours may have been missing but the excitement still remained the same.

Rajini's loyal fans found a noble and silent way of celebrating their idol's birthday even if the superstar wasn't in the mood.

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