Cine power still fuels politics in south India

This refers to "Political parties field actors, TV stars in Kerala" (THI April 3). Tamil Nadu is the provenance land of film personalities turned politicians right from Annadurai, Karunanidhi, M.G. Ramachandran and Jayalalitha who proved their political roles very triumphantly. But it is not so in respect of other movie stalwarts such as Sivaji Ganesan, Vijayakant and a few more. Now Kamal Hassan who founded a new party, is fast moving with his artistic skills to impress the voters. Clairvoyant Rajinikant wisely discarded his decision to launch the political party. Now both DMK and AIADMK do not have noted tinsel stars behind them. If AIADMK loses, they have to repent later for uninviting Sasikala.

In combined Andhra Pradesh, film actors Jaggaiah, Jamuna, Sarada, Krishna had a small stint as legislators decades ago. After experiencing high success rate of N.T. Rama Rao, a few well renowned actors such as Chiranjeevi, Vijayashanthi started new parties but were miserably flopped at political box office. Knowing fully well the variance of voting behaviour, power star Pawan Kalyan, who pathetically lost in two places in 2019 assembly elections, is still in the uncertain field with lot of perseverance and hope. Bollywood also successfully represented in parliament. Anything may happen in politics and cricket is a proven theory.

Kerala is also no exception. Some of its acting fraternity are in the fray from different parties. They should know that their victory may not only be dependent on their twinkling screen faces but also the political party that fielded them.

— N Ramalakshmi, Secunderabad