Cooling Glasses, Slow Motion, and Laughs: Rajinikanth’s funny speech wins hearts at Velpari event

To mark the milestone of one lakh (100,000) copies sold Mr. Su. Venkatesan’s book Velpari, a felicitation ceremony was held at the Kalaivanar Arangam in Chennai. Actor Rajinikanth, Director Shankar, TV anchor Gopinath, and many others participated in the event and spoke about the book.

Speaking on stage, Rajinikanth said: Knowledge tells you what to speak, your talent tells you how to speak, the stage tells you whether to speak, but only your experience tells you what should and shouldn’t be spoken. Several months ago, in this same Kalaivanar Arangam, there was an event where a book about Kalaignar (Karunanidhi) written by EV Velu was released. The Chief Minister, ministers, IAS, IPS officers – many prominent people were present. I thought, ‘Everyone’s a friend, right?’ So while speaking, I wanted to say, ‘Old students are tough to handle. They won’t leave the class easily,’ and then go on to say, ‘They are experienced pillars, the foundation of any movement or party. Without such seasoned members, no organization can grow. They are not just the pillars, but even the summit.’ But before I could say that, everyone started laughing at the first part, and I completely forgot the rest of what I wanted to say. I was like – what just happened?”

This humorous anecdote brought the hall to laughter.

Rajinikanth went on: “So while coming to this event today, I told myself, Mr. Rajinikanth, speak carefully. Not everyone here is your fan. Some people might wonder – for a literary event like this, couldn’t they have invited someone like Sivakumar? What a speaker he is, so well-read, speaks about the Mahabharata, about Thirukkural for six hours straight. Or Kamal Haasan – such an intellectual, they could have invited him too. Instead, they went and invited this guy who, even at 75, wears cooling glasses and walks in slow motion – that’s what some people might think,” he said playfully, drawing more laughter from the crowd.

Rajinikanth’s trademark self-deprecating humour wins the crowd

Rajinikanth also shared: “Jayakanthan is one of my favorite authors. After reading his book Yaarukkaga Azhudhaan (For whom did he cry?), I cried for three minutes”. He added that Director Shankar is the third major filmmaker, after Bharathiraja and Mani Ratnam, to have played a significant role in changing the course of Tamil cinema. He concluded by wishing success for Shankar’s upcoming film based on Velpari.

(Video Credits – Cinema Vikatan)