Rajinikanth filmography
He played dual roles in the action thriller Billa (1980), which was a remake of the Bollywood film Don (1978). It was his biggest commercial success to that point and gave him the "action-hero" image. Balachander's Thillu Mullu (1981), the Tamil remake of the Bollywood film Gol Maal (1979), was Rajinikanth's first full-length comedy film. He played triple roles in the 1982 Tamil film Moondru Mugam, which earned him a special prize at the Tamil Nadu State Film Awards ceremony. The following year, he made his Bollywood debut with Rama Rao Tatineni's Andha Kanoon; it was among the top-grossing Bollywood films in 1983. Muthuraman's Nallavanuku Nallavan (1984) won him that year's Filmfare Award for Best Tamil Actor. In 1985, he portrayed the Hindu saint Raghavendra Swami in his 100th film Sri Raghavendrar, a box-office failure. In the latter half of the 1980s, he starred in several films in Tamil and Hindi, including Padikkadavan (1985), Mr. Bharath (1986), Bhagwaan Dada (1986), Velaikaran (1987), Guru Sishyan (1988) and Dharmathin Thalaivan (1988). During this time, he made his debut in American cinema with a supporting role in the mystery adventure film Bloodstone (1988), a box-office failure.