2016 poll festival may not be box office hit as stars stay away

Only a few film and TV stars have sought poll ticket this time. Vaagai Chandrasekar, Poochi Murugan and Bose Venkat are some of the faces from the tinsel town, who have approached the DMK for a chance to contest in the May 16 poll. 

Vaagai Chandrasekhar, who had unsuccessfully contested in the ‘Rising Sun’ symbol, is eyeing Velachery seat this time. ‘Poochi’ Murugan, a low profile actor and a DMK member, who backed “team Vishal” in the high-decibel Nadigar Sangam election, and actor Bose Venkat, who played lead role in one of the movies Karunanidhi had penned recently, are trying to make their Assembly debut through a DMK ticket as the party had served as a springboard for the likes of Napolean, S S Chandran, Sarathkumar and T Rajendar, who later defected to rival camps or floated their own party. 

Curiously, the AIADMK that unleashed its star power during the 2014 Lok Sabha poll campaign, has only less than half a dozen of applications from Kollywood, including its prominent media face C R Saraswati. Even, the DMDK may field only one candidate that is Vijayakant, the party founder himself, who is an actor-turned politician. In the Congress camp, spokesperson Khushbu Sundar’s name is doing the rounds as the favourite for Myalpore constituency, notwithstanding the fact that she had not applied for the seat even. 

Surprisingly, an isolated BJP has had a good number of veterans from the dream factory joining the party, including Vijayakumar on Wednesday. A former DMK union minister in the UPA regime, actor Napolean, music director Gangai Amaran and Gayatri Raghuram were some of the popular star faces to turn Modi fans recently. 

Chances of even a fraction of these stars turning candidates in major parties are bleak considering that the leaders seem to be keen on merely exploiting their cosmetic value. Echoing this view, Dravidian scholar and editor V M S Suba Guna Rajan says; “Only those actors who have faded in to obscurity are entering politics. Popular faces will not risk losing business. 

The DMK has seen a fair share of actors, who left the party, after their terms in the electoral colleges. So, the DMK does not rely much on them.” 

“Unlike the DMK, the AIADMK does not have that many star speakers and popular second rung leaders. Hence, it engages actors only for poll campaigns. Most of these actors are paid for the campaign and their role is restricted to criticising the rivals of the AIADMK. Except, a few lucky ones like Ramarajan, Sarathkumar or S S Chandran, the rest are just paid actors who switched loyalties as and when the political stage changed in the state,” Suba Guna Rajan added.