Bollywood exchanges bouquets and brickbats — over politics now

Brace yourself for a new Star Wars — only, our Bollywood divas and dudes aren’t battling with buffed nails over the box office. Instead, the film industry, home to starry camps, suddenly finds itself swamped with competing political groups, each claiming its ideology is more glamorous than its co-star’s! This is a marked change from Eastman Colour days when stars, quizzed about their politics, would coyly simper, “Ask Mummy.” With multiple movie stars in the electoral fray now, politics has perfumed Bollywood’s vanity vans like never before, creating new political thrillers every day.
One of these is the dramatic face-off between a group waving a ‘secular’ banner in the studio air, versus another going rouge-pink repeating ‘growth’. Long-time drama king Mahesh Bhatt heads the first, claiming BJP and its PM nominee Narendra Modi may damage the idea of India. Bhatt’s got fan-mail from Vishal Bhardwaj and Nandita Das, but he’s getting no applause from director Madhur Bhandarkar who supports NaMo for his deep-focus vision.
Amidst this clash of cosmetics and clichés, some stars swing both ways. Leading these is superstar Salman Khan who endorsed NaMo for governance but mentioned he votes for Congress himself. Salman’s only following daddy Salim Khan’s lead – the veteran script writer launched NaMo’s Urdu website but added he is a loyal Congress voter, refusing to let any ideological zanjeer become a political deewar. Yet, few Bollywood stars match South superstar Rajinikanth, who plays hard to get with all politicos. Despite NaMo’s recent lungi dance, Rajini lightly mentioned nice governance work but left the rest of the endorsement screen tantalisingly blank. Now that’s cinema, leaving you watching the post-interval space.