Little Superstar

Little Superstar is an Internet meme, consisting of a video of a midget dancing to MC Miker G & DJ Sven's Holiday, in a clip from a 1990 Tamil movie Adhisaya Piravi, featuring actor Rajnikanth. Various mashups have also appeared on the Internet using tracks from Cypress Hill, Michael Jackson and others. One variant of the clip has been branded with a TiVo status bar and logo.

Although this clip is from India, this is actually not a Bollywood movie. Instead, it is a product of the Chennai (Madras) movie industry, otherwise known as Kollywood. The midget in the clip is actually an adult actor, whose stage name is "Thavakalai" (Tamil for "frog"). Thavakalai made his acting debut in the 1983 Tamil movie "Mundhanai Mudichu" (director K.Bhagyaraj) and has appeared in several movies since then, usually playing the role of a child sidekick.

The video has been featured on YouTube, in Tom's bulletins on Myspace, on the E! TV show The Soup, the MSNBC shows Countdown with Keith Olbermann and Tucker Carlson and elsewhere. There are also other video clips of Thavakalai fighting.

Translation of the Dialogue in the Dance Clip

The language spoken in the clip is Tamil. The rough English equivalent would be:

Mother: Hey, hey. What's with the party this early in the morning. Everyone leave, shoo, shoo. (Speaking to Rajinikanth, who's lying on the cot) Why not get some rest, honey. Go ahead and rest.

Rajinikanth: All right (lights up a beedi).

Thavakalai: Boss, give me a beedi.

Rajinikanth: Hey! Little kids shouldn't smoke.

Thavakalai: Brother, I'm ten years older than you, you know. You should give it to me.

Rajinikanth: And if I don't...?

Thavakalai: I'll skin you alive.

Rajinikanth: Here you go.

Translation of the Dialogue in the Slapping Clip

Thavakalai: Boss, you shouldn't bother for this small matter. I'll take care of this with my hands.

Rajinikanth: Right.

(Thavakalai clambers up a person's tie and starts slapping him)

Thavakalai: Boss, how (am I doing)?

Rajinikanth: Great!

Rajinikanth: That's enough. He's going to die (at this rate).

(Thavakalai lets go of tie and returns back to cot)

Rajinikanth: Now then, is what he dished out enough for you, or do you want me to give you some more?

Misconceptions

The clips were incorrectly reported as being from Bollywood in some places on the web and TV media, such as YouTube, Yahoo and the "Oddball Plays of the Month" segment of Keith Olbermann show on MSNBC. The movie is from the Chennai (Madras) movie industry, otherwise known as Kollywood

Thavakalai is also incorrectly described as a child actor in some places. He is an adult.

Thavakalai was never known as the "little superstar" in the Tamil film industry. On the other hand, the normal-sized actor in the clips (Rajinikanth) is a genuine superstar and is referred to as such. In 2006, Rajinikanth had the distinction of being the highest paid Indian actor, and also the second highest paid actor in Asia, second only to Jackie Chan.

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