Off-screen, the political act

It was with some anxiety that people watched the standoff between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka on the Hogenakkal water project. Things got very tense when it became clear that Tamil and Kannadiga cine actors would be fronting the agitation. Eventually, the issue was put on hold, but the emotive power of film personalities to raise inter-state tensions had already been proved.

The intersection of cinema and political life in the South will, in fact, be watched closely this year, as two cinestars, Chiranjeevi in Andhra Pradesh and Rajinikanth in Tamil Nadu, appear to be getting relevant in ways that could even affect those who do not watch their films.

There is nothing covert about it in south India, especially in Tamil Nadu. Cinestars, screenplay writers and producers have, since the ‘50s, been completely in sync with the politics and social upheavals of the times. It has not just been the case of M.G. Ramachandran who played radical roles and spouted lines often written by the present chief minister of Tamil Nadu (screenplay writer “Dr Kalaingnar”), M. Karunanidhi. Cinema had been the vocation of at least two former chief ministers of this state, who then chose to formally move into public life and play the roles almost as big as their cutouts.

In Andhra Pradesh, of course, there was N.T. Rama Rao (father-in-law of Chandrababu Naidu). The film actor who began his theatre career playing a woman in an award-winning role, through his 290-odd films, fired the imagination of the electorate when he was cast as Lord Krishna and then later, as Sri Venkateswara. NTR’s story as a “self-made” Telugu hero became bigger as details emerged of him having even taken to delivering milk on his bicycle in Vijayawada to supplement his family income. Finally, with a shrewd mix of caste politics (he spoke of the empowerment of the Kamma caste, as opposed to just Reddys, which the Congress of the time had become closely associated with) and the cause of “injury to Andhra pride”, he formed the first-ever non-Congress Government in Andhra Pradesh, and that too within just nine months of forming the Telugu Desam Party.

And now, today, it would seem as though NTR’s juggernaut has come full circle, as the TDP and Congress watch Chiranjeevi, the sensational Telugu hero, contemplating a career in politics, trying to take along the backward castes, SCs, tribals and rural poor. He has been much more mysterious, as nothing is official; but there are urgent whispers about the meetings he is having with political scientists on how to best go about his “combination”. Chiranjeevi is a Kapu, the caste that is again said to be out of both the Congress’s and the TDP’s scheme of things. While Chiranjeevi is keen to not be seen as heading a Kapu party, a little bit of caste can only spike the political brew and make it headier.

... contd.

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