Stalin's son wants to be a big shot star

Chennai: While father MK Stalin is engaged in a succession battle within the DMK, his son is busy building a new career after establishing himself as a big-shot producer of Tamil movies. After bankrolling some of the top Kollywood blockbusters in the last four years, Stalin Jr or Udhayanidhi Stalin is trying out the greasepaint in full-length feature Oru Kal Oru Kannadi (A stone, a mirror), OKOK for short. Stalin Jr plays an unemployed youth in the film, and as the Kollywood practice goes, will romance a Mumbai import, Hansika Motwani, an established star in Tamil and Telugu. [caption id=“attachment_212868” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“A still from OKOK.”]  [/caption] In the the theatrical trailer and the publicity stills, he looks cool and seasoned in front of the camera. The highlights of the film, besides his planned debut, will be his pairing with a hotshot comedian, Santhanam, and the script, say industry sources. Now a veteran producer-distributor, Stalin Jr is quite media-savvy and constantly releases info about the movie and work-in-progress stills. His Red Giant movies is a key production company in Tamil, which his detractors say was successful mainly because of the political muscle of his family during the DMK regime. It has produced or distributed many big budget movies featuring top stars such as Surya, Kamal Haasan, Vijay, Simbu and Arya. Interestingly, his cousin, son of Stalin Sr’s sparring older brother MK Azhagiri,  is also a big-shot producer and started off almost at the same time. His production company is called Cloud Nine movies. During the DMK regime, these two, along with Sun Pictures of Kalanidhi Maran, another member of the Karunanidhi family, had a tight leash on the Tamil film industry with many traditional producers giving up in frustration or joining hands with them. With the change of government, many expected serious impact on their film business. But Stalin Jr continued to produce movies and perhaps his foray into acting is aimed at creating a fan following, which in Tamil industry can also act as a cadre on call. Despite allegations of peddling influence in controlling the film industry, both Udhayanidhi and Dayanidhi have funded some offbeat movies as well. The success of OKOK will be crucial for Stalin Jr. Otherwise, he may end up a part-time actor like his father was in the 1980s. Stalin Sr, in his younger days, had acted in a few movies and TV soaps.