Casting coup: Tinsel town still supplies political stars of T.N.

The projection of Vijayakant as the chief ministerial candidate of the alliance between his party, Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam, and the People’s Welfare Front is yet another reinforcement of a long-established trend in Tamil Nadu — of prominent film personalities taking the helm of State affairs in the State.

Tamil Nadu has been ruled by leading film actors and politicians who had close links with the film world for the past five decades.

As is well known in Tamil Nadu, three established actors — M.G. Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa, who played opposite each other in lead roles in many films, and V. N. Janaki, MGR’s wife — occupied the office of Chief Minister and all three belonged to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. Also known is the involvement of two other former Chief Ministers, C.N. Annadurai and M. Karunanidhi, as scriptwriters in tinsel town.

Today, two of them are still in the running for the Assembly elections: Ms. Jayalalithaa and Mr. Karunanidhi. Vijayakant, who enjoyed great popularity in the 1980s and 1990s playing hero in countless Tamil films, has joined them, aspiring for the chair of the Chief Minister.

Let’s rewind a bit to see where exactly this relationship between politicians and film stars actually began. It was the Dravida Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam that first fielded stars in the Assembly elections way back in 1957 with S.S. Rajendran, popularly known as SSR, Anna and Karunanidhi in the fray. Anna and Karunanidhi emerged victorious. However, SSR won from Theni in the 1962 elections to claim the distinction of the first actor to become an MLA in the State; why, even the country.

Other film personalities associated with politics are T. Rajendar, D. Napoleon, Tiruchi Soundararajan, Isari Velan, Radha Ravi, S.V. Shekhar, R.M. Veerappan, and director Ramanarayanan. But it was MGR who again created history when he became the first popular actor to become the Chief Minister of a State in 1977.

Sarath Kumar, founder of the Samathuva Makkal Katchi, and Arun Pandian — both actors — made it to the Assembly after the 2011 elections.

But, there were some popular stars who were not lucky in the electoral contest. Sivaji Ganesan, an actor-par-excellence, floated his own party, Tamizhaga Munnetra Munnani, after quitting the Congress and contested from Tiruvaiyaru seat in Thanjavur district in the 1989 elections. But he lost to a DMK novice. Lyricist Kannadasan was another big name who could not make it big in politics. Nagore E.M. Hanifa, who has rendered songs in a few Tamil films, was fielded by the DMK twice, but he lost.

Actors Vagai Chandrasekar (DMK) and Ritheesh (DMK), Ramarajan (AIADMK), Latha (MGR AIADMK), Mansoor Ali Khan (Puthiya Tamilagam) and M. Karthik (All India Forward Bloc) were in the fray in the Lok Sabha elections on different occasions in the State.