Fans b’day messages speak of Vijay’s political ambitions

The 44-year-old actor with over 51,600 registered fan clubs with a membership of over 13 lakh in Tamil Nadu and a few more in Kerala, Malaysia and Singapore, besides thousands of unregistered fan clubs launched his Vijay People’s Movement on the eve of the 2009 Parliament elections in Pudukkottai.

Vijay himself left no one in doubt about his political ambitions as the name of his film released on birthday eve itself was Sarkar (government). His last movie Mersal too contained political messages and faced the heat from the BJP, ruling the Centre. Most of the posters screamed Aalaporan Thamizhan (Tamilian Vijay will rule) while a few openly called him Naalaiya Mudhalvar (future chief minister).

Most of the posters contained their hero’s comments on the importance of farming and came out with titles of Vivasayigalin Kural (voice of farmers). The fans used social media to greet Vijay with numerous titles while the walls of the city were pasted with posters hailing Vijay as Thamizhagathai Aalapogum Naalaiya Thalamaiyae (tomorrow’s leadership of Tamil Nadu). Tamil Nadu alla, Thalapathynadu (Not Tamil Nadu, but Thalapathy’s country) screamed one poster. The earlier title of Ilayathalapathy had been altered to thalapathy, which is used by DMK cadre to address their working president MK Stalin.

Functionaries of Vijay People’s Movement denied such link and pointed out that Vijay, whose wife is a Sri Lankan Tamil, led a fast in 2009. One of the workers recalled that the fans had worked for the AIADMK in the 2011 Assembly elections and not in 2016, he reasoned. However, people close to his father and film director SA Chandrasekhar did not rule out an active role for the fan club in future elections.