Kollywood stars manage to cool heels abroad to avoid TN campaign heat

Citing prior professional assignments, the who’s who of Kollywood have suddenly got month-long schedules in foreign countries or appear to be terribly busy with personal commitments. According to industry sources, the reason for this is because they are under a lot of pressure to campaign or show their support to members of different parties, but they are hesitant to do so for either of the Dravidian majors.

In the 2011 state elections, Vijay’s Makkal Iyakkam extended its support to AIADMK and reports recently surfaced that the actor would be canvassing for Kamal Haasan’s Makkal Needhi Maiyyam. However, a source close to the actor said, “He is busy shooting for Vijay 63, which is being made on a huge budget. The shoot is on track and he cannot allocate time to canvas for any political parties.” The source also added that post elections, Vijay is taking off to a foreign location to shoot for the film.

Actors like Vikram and Vishal, who were reportedly going to canvas for DMK and AMMK respectively are currently shooting abroad for their films. A member of Vishal’s unit said, “He will be back in Chennai only after 50 days as he is shooting for Sundar C’s film in Turkey. It will be completed in a single stretch and he won’t be back in town anytime soon.” And now that Vishal is injured, it’s unlikely that he will be in any condition to campaign. There were also widespread rumours that Vikram will be one of the star campaigners for DMK this year, especially after his daughter’s wedding to late DMK chief M Karunanidhi’s grandson. However, a source from his office said, “Vikram’s shooting schedule is too tight and he will be heading to Europe soon for one of his films and we cannot reveal more Vijay Sethupathi, one of K’town’s most popular actors, had recently launched a voting awareness campaign. The video was perceived as an election campaign for a specific party. Sethupathi, however, denied it saying, “It was just a reminder for people to perform their duty. I never thought that the video would attract negative response and people would stamp me as a campaigner for a national party.” However, there are others who have strong alliances to certain parties and have cleared their calendars just to campaign. Udhayanidhi Stalin, who has been campaigning for DMK, said, “I finished my shoot prior to election campaigns as I know I will be working hard for my party. I will begin shooting only after the election in Tamil Nadu gets over.” Sarathkumar will campaign for AIADMK this election but he was unavailable to comment. Powerstar Srinivasan, who is contesting from South Chennai for the All India Republic Party said he will begin campaigning from the weekend.

A Malaysian Daily last Sunday had published that Namitha will be the star campaigner for Tun Mahatir-led party Pakatan Harpan’s fourth by-election in Rantau constituency. However, the actress refuted the rumours and said that she is busy shooting in Yercaud for her film.