What keeps Rajinikanth looking young?

Before Annaatthe fever takes over, we try to unearth the secret behind the 70-year-old Superstar's ever-youthful looks.

Rajinikanth turns 71 on December 12. On screen, the actor looks not a day over 40. So how does the common-man looking Superstar continue to look like a superhero on screen, defying laws of nature? His well-receded hairline and wrinkled skin, which the actor actually makes no efforts to hide in real life, doesn't make the cut on screen. On screen, we still see the Thalaivar with a head full of hair, and smooth skin, sprinting energetically, flipping sunglasses with as much ease as he did back in the 90s. How?

Actor and film historian Mohan Raman, also a jury member for the National Film Award for Best Writing on Cinema, has an interesting take. "If you buy a house with a strong foundation, painting is just an outside job," vouching that Rajinikanth may have support, but it is the actor who does most of the heavy lifting. "How has he achieved that? Well, the body may be old, but the mind has to be simple and young for this, and Rajinikanth has managed that over the years. You can have a makeup artist make you look younger, but can you do that to your mind?" Probe him a little further on 'makeup' and 'mind', and Mohan Raman reveals 'yoga' and 'spirituality' as Rajinikanth's trade secret. "At 70, the body will be different from what it used to be at 40. Rajini sir knows. Maybe back then he could sprint 10 km, but now he can manage only 1 km. So the frame is set up in a way that the right shot can be captured within that 1 km," he adds.