The star as politician

The 'Thalaivar' may have had the Malaysian PM, Najib Razak, visiting him at his Chennai home, but he cannot travel at will, even if it is for a welfare activity concerning the Tamil population in neighbouring Sri Lanka

Silver screen superstars are facing a testing time currently in the Deccan region of India. So much so, it has raised a huge question mark on their ability to remain politically correct or boldly take a stand if they decide to strike out on an independent path of their own. It is a clear indication of the changing times that we live in, a contrast from the time when hugely popular actors and actresses, not too long ago, sailed on their erstwhile claim to fame in the celluloid world and made it to the top, comfortably.

If it is Pawan Kalyan and his Jana Sena, which is being watched keenly for the maverick star’s pronouncements and political stances in the two Telugu states, the militant presence of Roja in AP politics as she takes on the TDP government, as of now, only boxes her in as a politician, who is doing her role of being in the opposition. Dreaming of heading a government is something at a fair distance even for their all-encompassing ambitions, even for someone including Balakrishna, who is a leading light of his brother-in-law’s Telugu Desam Party and relatively active in the political firmament.

The situation was not as shaky, when this momentum shift in favour of cine personalities enabling them to take up apex political positions began. Close to 40 years after India elected its first ‘filmi’ hero -MG Ramachandran (MGR) - as chief minister in Tamil Nadu in 1977, the ‘star as politician’ syndrome has however continued to occupy an important position in the political history of the country.

While assuming charge at the helm of affairs with a whopping legislative majority and unbridled public support, MGR had set a new global record of being the first matinee idol to have been elevated thus. America’s Ronald Reagan followed him by getting elected as its 40th President, around four years later, only in 1981.

Meanwhile, in Chennai, the top two stars of Tamil cinema are in a soup of their own making. The cat-on-the-wall Rajinikanth, who has been famous for his slippery, escapist approach to real politics for over two decades presently, is now embroiled in a controversy, accepting an invitation to visit Sri Lanka for a ‘noble cause’ of handing over houses to Tamil families and getting rapped for the same, backing out subsequently. All because Lanka is ‘enemy territory’ for the Dravidian politicians in Chennai and elsewhere who have used the emotive Tamil issue across the Palk Straits to keep their political businesses going.

Kamal Haasan, his avowed apolitical counterpart, too was the darling of social media when he spoke openly in favour of the Jallikattu sport and the need to revoke the ban on it. The entire world watched as the local population of the Tamil State rose as one and pressurised the Centre to allow them their ‘cultural game’.

Kamal’s irreligious posturing, despite maintaining a strong Vaishnavite link in his socio-fantasy films, has got him into trouble this time, with the hyperactive Hindu godmen and outfits taking him to task for his irreverent comments on Draupadi and Mahabharata.

If his ‘Viswaroopam’ was supposedly offensive to Muslims, which invited a ban on it by the then Jayalalithaa government, this time around, the pro-majoritarian mood in the country is not willing to allow him to exercise his freedom of speech, for sure. Till the time of writing, the last is not heard on both the above issues, which has strongly polarised the pundits in the State and elsewhere as both these veterans are well-known names across the globe.

From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, Indian politics has changed course, both ideologically and administratively, since then. The rise of the greasepaint gods, moving into the hustle bustle of “netagiri” has however continued to be a trend all across actively. Except that cine stars, whichever party they chose to align with, often have had to be a part of the larger picture, a member of the political establishment, rather than automatically be considered for the topmost position.

This is true especially of BIMARU states and the upcountry region, with its leading movie icons, among others, like Shatrughan Sinha, Vinod Khanna, Dharmendra, Hema Malini (BJP), Raj Babbar, Nagma (Congress) and the relatively lesser-known Ravi Kishan and Manoj Tiwari (BJP). In the eastern part of the country, West Bengal, for one, its local titan Mithun Chakraborty (Trinamool Congress) has even quit politics, after a brief stint as a Rajya Sabha MP.

Here is where, the five states of South India had been different. MGR, followed by our own “Telugu bidda” NT Rama Rao and subsequently J Jayalalithaa have not just held forth in the States where they were domiciled, but were effortlessly hoisted to the coveted “gaddi”, in a relatively short period of their independent political identity.

MGR may have had a long stint with Dravidian politics, but his rise to the CM’s chair was within five years after he broke away from the parent DMK to form his ADMK in 1972. For NTR, it was a seamless transition within a year of his launching Telugu Desam Party as he became the chief minister in 1983. Jayalalithaa was drafted into AIADMK in 1982 and by 1991, she was the party and the State’s numero uno.

Things, have however, been far from rosy for the demigods of the celluloid world in the 21st century. While Jayalalithaa went on to rule Tamil Nadu till she expired in December 2016, she seems to be the last in the list of people belonging to the film industry who have enjoyed political power too. A case in point is the doddering status of the political outfits formed by her successors in the Tamil film industry.

A host of wannabes, beginning with Vijayakanth (Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam, 2005) and Sarath Kumar, who has alternated between AIADMK and his own caste-based party, have kept aiming for the bull’s eye, clearly unsuccessfully since then. The 2016 elections presented a golden opportunity for Vijayakanth but he muffed it up because of his adamant and uncooperative attitude with regard to power-sharing and seat distribution. His seniors, the duo of Kamal and Rajini, are clearly out of the race.

The status of Chiranjeevi, the blink-n-miss existence of his Praja Rajyam Party for just about three years between 2008-11, prior to its merging with the Grand Old Party, the Congress is too recent in memory. With the megastar maintaining an inactive existence in the heat and dust of the political world, focusing more on his just revived onscreen career, one can be sure of his goodbye to politics for quite some time now.

In many ways, this can be expected as ideological identifications of the stars in question have all been shallow and of recent vintage, a major difference from the times a few decades ago, when cine personalities identified with political parties, fairly early in their careers.

The fading presence of heroines like Jayaprada and Vijayashanti, who could not do much despite being in and out of both regional and national parties, is also because of their rootlessness and ill-defined role plays in their outfits. For a long time to come, politics seems to be firmly in the grip of full-time “netas”, with the “abhinetas” and “abhinetris”, marginalised in the power games being played out everywhere.