The legend of Rajinikanth  or the Rajinikanth of legend  is set to become even bigger with the release at the Venice Film Festival of a documentary on his fan following. University of Michigan professor Joyojeet Pal was studying the use of computers in a rural school in Tamil Nadu when he noticed something odd — most of the children he met wanted to be computer engineers, though they had little access to technology.

Pal later discovered that the kids were fans of Rajinikanth, who played the role of a computer engineer in one of his blockbuster action films.A year later, Pal read about a villager in Tamil Nadu who planned to climb more than a thousand stairs on his knees to pray for the success of a new movie starring Rajinikanth, the film name for the man born as Shivaji Rao Gaikwad.

Pal shared the news with Rinku Kalsy, a childhood friend and filmmaker in Amsterdam, according to an account provided by the University of Michigan. Together, they went to see the villager, and the idea of a film on fandom was born.The documentary, 'For The Love of a Man', produced by Pal and directed by Kalsy, will premiere at the Venice Film Festival in September.