One day, sometime in the mid-1990s, Rajinikanth was in his car, driving down a busy Chennai road, when traffic came to a sudden halt. The then chief minister J. Jayalalithaa's cavalcade was to pass and the traffic police were clearing the area. And no, they could not tell him when exactly the lockdown would be lifted.
The Tamil superstar was incensed. He and Jayalalithaa were anyway not on the best of terms. He had criticised her scathingly for the alleged corrup-tion cases against her. His had said: "If Jayalalithaa is voted back to power, even God cannot save Tamil Nadu." That day, Rajinikanth couldn't bear it. He got out of his car, bought a pack of cigarettes from a roadside shack and stood there smoking.
Soon, the news of his presence spread. The ensuing pandemonium unnerved the police so much that they requested him to get into his car and just leave. It didn't matter even if he got precedence over Jayalalithaa's cavalcade. Hundreds gathered and cheered him lustily, even as he waved and left. And thus, Rajinikanth proved his might at a time when the late Amma was the ruler of the state.
That was also the time when G.K. Moopanar, the leader of the Tamil Manila Congress, a breakaway faction of the Congress, was courting Rajinikanth to take advantage of his popularity and jump into the electoral fray. Rajini, according to some, was even offered the chief minister's chair if the party won the Assembly elections that year. But he mulled the offer for a few days and then turned it down.
But his opposition to Jayalalithaa had its effect. Months later, the All India Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam couldn't win enough seats to fill one of those benches outside the teastalls on the road opposite the Tamil Nadu Assembly. Her party won just four out of 235 seats in the Assembly. And Jayalalithaa? She lost in her own constituency.
More than 20 years later, the alchemy of politics and cine stardom is churning in Chennai again. Tamil film industry's other superstar, Kamal Haasan, is entering politics. Even Rajinikanth is facing tremendous pressure from fans to try his luck at the hustings. After the success of Mersal, fans are also urging Vijay to take the plunge. Tamil actor Vishal is the latest to jump into the fray. He filed his nomination papers to contest the R.K. Nagar by-election on December 21, but they were rejected due to technical reasons.
Whether it is Chiranjeevi in neighbouring Andhra, Rajini or Haasan in Tamil Nadu, the southern legends' movie screenings are public events. The posters are bathed in milk and curd, crowds rise and roar, whistle, clap and throw confetti or coins when their idols first enter the frame. But will the same people be as starry-eyed when they enter the voting booths to choose their candidate?
"I can assure you if superstar Rajini enters politics, he will probably gather the greatest number of people India has ever seen in a political rally. But I can also say for sure that not all of them will vote for him. Likewise for Kamal Haasan. That's how times have changed," says Khushboo Sundar, Tamil actor and spokesperson for the Congress.
C. Lakshmanan, an academic with the Madras Institute of Development Studies, points out that worshipping fans can be smart choosers when it comes to politics. "Voters make their choices based on what they think is in their interest, and not what is in the interest of a movie icon like Haasan." According to him, it's been a case of diminishing returns for southern celebrities entering politics.
And yet this is the geography where film stars once dominated the political scene. Andhra Pradesh had N.T. Rama Rao (NTR), while Tamil Nadu boasted of M.G. Ramachandran (MGR), K. Karunanidhi and J. Jayalalithaa.
But the MGRs and NTRs spent years honing their images through social work, point out experts. They cast themselves as messiahs of the poor before entering politics. Movie icons in recent years haven't shown the same rigour.
In 1996, things could have worked for Rajini purely on the strength of his stardom. "He could have occupied the space of MGR," says G. Palanithurai, a Madurai-based political analyst, who conducted a survey that showed a majority of people were in favour of Rajini joining politics that year. But that was 20 years ago.
Karnataka's close brush with a superstar entering politics was way back in the early Eighties, when the reigning matinee idol Rajkumar was drawn into social and political causes during the Gokak movement - a literary campaign espousing the primacy of Kannada in high school curricula. "That was perhaps the only time when a film star in Karnataka could have won elections purely on his own steam, but Rajkumar refused to jump into the electoral fray," recalls Chandrasekhar Patil, Kannada author and political analyst.
In 2008, in undivided Andhra, Chiranjeevi launched his own party - Praja Rajyam. But even he couldn't shake the two dominant parties of the state, Congress and the Telugu Desam.
"Artistes are emotional people and they may feel they can do a lot for the people once they enter the electoral fray. But there are so many things that contribute to winning elections. From huge amounts of money needed to run a party to booth-level co-ordination, they have to get so many things right. Most of them fail to understand this. The cost of playing politics is very high," says G.V. Purnachand, a Vijayawada-based political analyst and historian.
In recent times, many silver screen personalities such as Napolean, Sharath Kumar (Tamil Nadu), Vijayshanthi, Mohan Babu, Kota Srinivasa Rao (Andhra and Telangana) have been attracted to politics and then realised the difficulties of it. Some have even re-discovered their film careers. Not that this has deterred others. Among the South's current actor-politician constellation are - Amabrish (Congress), Divya Spandana (Congress), Anant Nag (Janata Dal - Secular), Jaggesh (BJP). Most are yet to make their mark.
Karnataka's actors lack political maturity, says T. Lohithaswa, himself a Kannada actor who has acted in more than 500 films. In his opinion, in Tamil Nadu and Andhra they have a better understanding of the political situation. He says, "They may not succeed politically but they are good at raising socio-economic issues that concern the people."
Pawan Kalyan, younger brother of Chiranjeevi, is taking up social and regional issues in Andhra Pradesh with an eye on launching a political party in the future, points out political analyst G.V. Purnachand.
At the end of the day, politics is a practical field. Chandrasekhar Patil recalls how Jayalalithaa, when she succeeded MGR, inherited a strong party organisation, which she made more vibrant. She appealed to the aspirations of not only the poor, but also the party leaders. He gives the contrasting example of a very popular actor, Vijaykanth of Tamil Nadu, who launched his own party in 2005 - the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam. "He had a huge fan base and he was expected to shake up politics, but he couldn't hold the interest of the voters," says Patil.
The thing to understand is that the public as a movie audience and the public as voter, exhibit different sensibilities. Even a superstar like Rajini has his limitations in the political sphere. In the 2004 parliamentary elections, he exhorted his fans to oppose the S. Ramadoss-led Patali Makkal Katchi (PMK). But the PMK won all its seats in north Tamil Nadu.
"People are mature because of the media and have better political understanding. They will not judge you by your popularity alone. They will see if you can meet their aspirations and have a plan to meet them. If you don't, you cannot attract them," Khushboo says.
From the sound of it, the voters down South have matured. And it will not do for the star-turned-aspiring politicians to bet on their twinkle alone.
