Suresh Menon Claims It Was Rajinikanth's Body Double In Shah Rukh Khan's 'Ra.One' Cameo

In 2011, Shah Rukh Khan produced and starred in the superhero film Ra.One directed by Anubhav Sinha. Besides Kareena Kapoor Khan and Arjun Rampal, the film also featured a cameo by Tamil superstar Rajinikanth.

Now, 14 years later, Suresh Menon who featured in a brief role in Ra.One has claimed that it wasn’t Rajinikanth but his body double in the film.

In an interview with Digital Commentary, Suresh Menon was asked about his experience of working in Ra.One and sharing a scene with Shah Rukh Khan and Rajinikanth.

© Red Chillies Entertainment

Suresh stated that Anubhav Sinha asked him to uplift the scene with his comedy and told him to adlib it and added, “Baad mein jab Rajinikanth saab aaye toh main turant aise ho gaya (gestures joining his hands) aur us bande ne jo Rajinikanth saab ka role kiya main unko achchi tarah se jaanta tha. Aur woh aate they ki Rajini saab aa gaye. Usko dekh hum sab haste they because itna achcha karta tha woh.”

He then added, “There were rumours shayad Rajinikanth saab aane waale hain ek cameo. But he couldn’t make it.”

The host then reconfirmed that it wasn’t Rajinikanth whom we saw on-screen in Ra.One, Suresh Menon replied, “Haan woh Rajinikanth saab nahin hain. Yeh main abhi bol sakta hoon I think. Haan of course.”

Menon then added, “Fir unka woh likeness daal ke yeh sab shoot kiya because Rajinikanth was not keeping well that time. It’s a known secret of the industry. Lekin bahut mazaa ayaa. Mujhe Rajni saab ko dekhna tha aur maine yeh offer kiya ki sir main hi karta hoon Rajinikanth saab ka role bhi.”

© Red Chillies Entertainment

The Truth Behind The Claim

It turns out Suresh Menon wasn’t wrong when he said Rajinikanth’s body double did the shoot. However, that doesn’t mean the actor we see on-screen in Ra.One isn’t Rajinikanth.

Back in 2011, Shah Rukh Khan had talked about getting Rajinikanth for a cameo in the film. At the launch of the Ra.One Genesis video game, he said, “We at Ra.One team are overwhelmed when Rajini Sir came on the sets of Ra.One.”

He added, “In the scene, I am trying to save Kareena (Sonia in the film) and kid and that's the time when Chitti (Rajini Sir) comes.”

And further thanked Rajinikanth’s daughter Soundarya Rajinikanth for helping him with Rajinikanth’s availability for the shoot in Mumbai.

Not just that, back in 2011, another report had claimed that Rajinikanth wasn’t on the set but he did come to Mumbai to help Red Chillies VFX team with Motion Capture (MoCAP).

Sharing the same, a source had told India Forums, “The VFX team of Red Chilies had already created a graphically designed flawlessly looking face of Rajini, after taking textures from Rajini's Robot sequences. Sensors were put on the face of Rajinikanth and his facial expressions were captured through MoCAP.”

The source added, “Rajini was also made to wear Chitti's attire and walk in and out of the sporty Benz car, his entire body movements especially the facial expressions were captured and real motion was put to his computer generated face and body.”

A visual graphic expert also revealed, “The entire activity took around a couple of hours, perhaps if Rajini sir would have not made it to Mumbai we would have to use a body double to do the needful.”

So, Rajnikanth did shoot for his cameo in Ra.One but wasn’t available on the set that day when Suresh Menon was filming his scenes.

Check out the cameo scene below:

At the box office, Ra.One became a success earning Rs 207.38 crore globally on a reported Rs 130 crore budget.