Pawan Kalyan, Nagarjuna meet Modi: What they can learn from NTR

When the legendary N T Rama Rao hung up his jackboots and chose to don the political robes, he was a revolution. He could effortlessly connect with the masses. It was not as if NTR was the first matinee idol to take the plunge into politics, nor was he the last to do so too. But while other film stars of Tamil Nadu were an example, NTR was a phenomenon. Many stars eventually tried to ape him, but in vain. Why did NTR alone remain a giant, while others could not make it that big? Multiple reasons helped magnify NTR’s personality, which, however, dwarfed the others. [caption id=“attachment_1443081” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Kalyan has floated his own party. Image courtesy: Facebook[/caption] As a superstar, NTR was idolized than was seen just as any other entertainer. For decades, NTR made sure that his movies – social as well as mythological – were essentially embedded with a political message. In hindsight, one gets the impression that he nursed political ambitions for a long time, if one analyses the numerous roles he donned. With his feet firmly rooted to the ground, he cast a magical spell on the people of Andhra Pradesh with his slogan of Telugu pride and an emotional call of “Indira Congress, Quit Andhra Pradesh”. That he took just nine months to trample the Congress and romp home to a landslide victory is history. But he continues to be remembered by the people. Though analysts and some politicos try to ascribe his resounding success to the circumstances – that the people were disgusted with the long and vexatious Congress regime whose stock fell gravely in people’s eyes – it cannot be dismissed so easily. Several film personalities tested the political waters even when NTR was alive. Superstar Krishna, heroine Jamuna, Jayaprada, Jayasudha, UV Krishnam Raju, Mohan Babu, P Babu Mohan, Kota Srinivasa Rao and several others flirted with politics and some went to become ministers either at the Centre or the state, while some of them contested and lost after just one election. Chandrababu Naidu treated the Telugu tinsel town, his father-in-law’s alma mater, almost as an extension counter of his Telugu Desam Party. He played the pied piper to the political aspirations of enthusiastic film personalities. Megastar Chiranjeevi, who perceived himself to be as popular or even more influential than the versatile NTR, stormed into the political theatre with a huge fanfare on the eve of general elections in 2009. The fan base of Chiranjeevi might have been much higher than that of NTR, owing to the surge in population over the decades since NTR’s entry into politics. But Chiranjeevi’s political foray proved to be certainly a case of misguided and miscalculated bravado. With a humble 18 Assembly seats, defeat in one of the two Assembly seats (he lost in his native constituency) and failure to make it at least one Lok Sabha seat, Chiranjeevi slogged it out for three years before he found a fig leaf in the Congress. While his Praja Rajyam Party proved to be a BIFR case for him, it turned out to be a strategic acquisition for the embattled Congress in the state. With the Congress binding him over with a Rajya Sabha membership and a berth in the Union Council of Ministers, the matinee idol has no alternative but to sail with the grand old party. For the record, he declared his youngest sibling Pawan Kalyan as a political opponent when the latter gave a “Congress hatao” call. Soon after Pawan Kalyan called on Bharatiya Janata Party’s prime ministerial nominee Narendra Modi, detractors of the brothers began swarming social media with comments including that Chiranjeevi was a case of ‘post-paid’ service, while Pawan Kalyan was a ‘pre-paid’ one. Close on the heels of Pawan Kalyan pledging his support to Modi, actor Nagarjuna called on Narendra Modi on Monday at Ahmedabad. He was “damn impressed” by the “development” of Gujarat. Not very surprisingly, he was not nursing any political ambition. Then why did he meet Modi in the first place? Nagarjuna, clearly, has grown to be an astute businessman. Vernacular TV news channels ran stories impaling his moves and his arcane political connections. Who else is waiting to meet Modi? Next in line is actor Mohan Babu. In fact, the who’s who of the entire Telugu filmdom was present and paid obeisance to Modi on his maiden visit to Hyderabad in August last. The reason for these meetings, as observed then and now, is just ‘business interests’. NTR, unlike his peers in the industry, never had any selfish business interest to protect and his intent in taking the plunge was never doubted by the people. He simply endeared himself to the masses as he was seen as the personification of the mythological roles of Rama, Krishna and other godly characters that he immortalized on the silver screen. Others flopped on the political canvas, because they have a vested business interest to tuck under the political sleeve.