Rajnikanth's Baashha in Hindi

Whatever Rajnikanth does makes news not only in Tamil Nadu but all over India. No wonder then that one of his biggest hits, Baasha, is going to be released in Hindi soon, 16 years after it was released in Tamil, in 1995.

Starring Rajnikanth, Nagma and the late Raghuvaran in lead roles, the film was directed by Suresh Krissna.

One of the highlights of the film was the music by Deva. The way Naan Autokaran...Autokaran... was sung by S P Balasubramanyam and picturised by the director made it the biggest hit song in Rajni's career.

Rajnikanth plays a simple auto driver, Manikkam, who is also the Robin Hood type Manik Baasha.

Rajni's punchy dialogues with political overtones are used by his fans even today.

Rajnikanth's voice will be dubbed by someone else in the new Hindi version. The new Baashha is said to be a digitised, colour corrected one.

We have to wait and see whether Baashha, with a new spelling, will have the same magic as the Baasha of yore.