According to the caption which Najib included, the picture was taken at Rajnikanth’s house in Chennai.
“Just had a very warm and friendly meeting with Mr Rajnikanth the Tamil superstar at his home,” the prime minister tweeted.
This comes as a surprise as previous reports had quoted Rizal Mansor, principal assistant director of the Special Division at the Prime Minister’s Office, as saying neither Najib nor his wife Rosmah Mansor had any plans to visit the Indian movie icon.
“Datin Seri Rosmah has the greatest respect for Rajnikanth and understands how huge a star he is in both India and Malaysia.
“However, there is no truth to recent news reports that there was a request to meet Mr Sivaji,” Rizal had said in a statement, using Rajnikanth’s real name of Sivaji Rao Gaekwad.
Rizal’s statement came in response to news reports quoting Indian news portal, The Telegraph, which claimed to have sighted Najib’s “minute-to-minute programme” in India.
It said a slot had been kept open for the actor, who was “playing coy” and had not confirmed whether he would meet the Malaysian visitors.
Last year, Rajnikanth drew huge crowds when he came to Malacca and Kuala Lumpur to film Kabali, which was shot almost entirely in Malaysia.
The movie, which was dubbed in various major Indian languages, and Bahasa Malaysia, was a box-office hit in India and Malaysia.
Najib is on his third official visit to India since becoming prime minister. He is accompanied by wife Rosmah Mansor, several Cabinet ministers, and business leaders on the six-day trip which began yesterday.