Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan, and Chiranjeevi are the biggest stars of Tamil and Telugu cinema in the 1980s and 1990s. Though Kamal Haasan attained stardom much before Chiranjeevi and Rajinikanth, the later duo has surpassed Kamal Haasan in stardom with heavy mass following.
While Kamal Haasan has done experimental movies, both Rajinikanth and Chiranjeevi preferred commercial movies though they have done a few off-beat movies occasionally. While Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan had equal fan following in Telugu also, Chiranjeevi didn’t have that much following in Tamil.
Explaining why Chiranjeevi couldn’t become a star in Tamil despite talent and hard work, Kamal Haasan said that Chiranjeevi was committed to too many movies in Telugu and he didn’t had time to Tamil movies and hence he couldn’t attain stardom in Tamil. During the initial days of his career