Politics

Celebrities in Politics : Northern Vs Southern

by Shruti-Gupta
May 21, 2019 14:47

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Celebrities in Politics : Northern Vs Southern

The politics of India, the one with the largest democracy in the world always takes place within the framework of its constitution which actually allows common citizen to form there party as per the norms written in the constitution and present themselves and others.

In recent decades, Indian politics has become a dynastic affair. Possible reasons for this could be the absence of party organizations, independent civil society associations that mobilize support for the parties and centralized financing of elections. As if Indian politics isn’t already full of histrionics, more and more movie stars are also joining the fray over past few decades.

The trend of movie stars joining politics is hardly new. It began during independence in the 1940s, when political leaders sought help from movie stars to build a unified Indian nation. Their celebrity was leveraged to strengthen the nation around the values of Indianness as amplified through cinema’s patriotic and nationalist content. As an extension, movie stars soon began joining politics. Nor is this a trend unique to India. Movie stars across the world have exploited a winning combination of charisma and political opportunity to launch high-profile political careers.

Political analysts feel that with 24-hour news channels, a political leader has to look presentable, connect with an audience, be articulate, and present a persona, that is what a celebrity has but all celebrities are not successful in politics. In other words, celebrity is not an automatic ticket to political success. Stars need to provide a credible political alternative to voters, who are becoming increasingly more politically aware and active on social media to express their opinions. Also, every time a big movie star enters the political arena, it triggers a strident public debate about the pros and cons of such a move. How healthy is this trend for the world’s largest democracy? Is it glamour rather than serious political ideology that dictated the star’s entry into politics? How will the polity and the citizens benefit from a movie star-turn-political candidate?

Brickbats aren’t uncommon. Very often criticism for actors turned politicians springs from their poor attendance records in Parliamentary sessions. Indian celebrities who have readily accepted the government’s nomination to the Rajya Sabha (Upper House) are especially guilty of absenteeism or not participating in debates. While some attend the House as regularly as the active politicians, others have abysmal attendance records with scarcely any participation in any major debates or raised issues.

Politics in Southern better than Northern for celebrity :-

When looking at the characteristics of the Indian political system, film stars beneficiate greatly from the advantages that their superstar stratus gives them. In India, cinema is so important that the star-fan relationship often becomes, for the most celebrated of films stars in India such as MGR or Amitabh Bachchan, a god-devotee relationship, with the star being regarded as an actual god by the public. As seen by the people the celebrities of southern India are more successful in politics as compared to the northern celebrities, the reasons for this could be as follows :-

The southern celebs play roles of demigod-vigilantes who fight against the corrupt system to deliver justice. Maybe that's what influences people to vote for them Also most roles they play are non-partisan and find appeal across religion and caste whereas in the northern areas the politics revolves mostly around castes and religion.

In the modern days, one of the main reason could be the cost it would be needed to start, run a party and be successful. Any prominent actor like Kamal or Rajini would have the wealth to start a party and they could easily access funding from industrialists. People bet on horses which they think will win.

People here take movie roles too seriously. Most of the commercially successful movie stars play roles which depict them as some kind of a superhero savior. This subconsciously creates a very positive impression of them and people start worshipping them.

This goes back to pre-independence era. In those days, the actors were used extensively to propagate the independence struggle and mobilize people. When India got independence and regional parties were formed, these actors were prominent figures since they already had people following and these parties capitalized it. The actors are powerful medium to take a message across mass.

Same reason why people flock to guru ji's, swami ji’s, pop singers, etc,. They create fantasies and people prefer that over their sad lives. Actors all over india are quite powerful and its just in south india actors choose to directly compete in politics because its gives them more power and pride.

Southern states are geographically smaller and contained enough for an actor to become a quite popular and have a state wide appeal. Actors from Bollywood are 'stateless', which means no one state can fully claim them to be theirs

In the southern areas language is one of the biggest identities and obviously the actors play to the crowd and praise the language in the movies. That’s why they are more successful as compared to those in northern areas.

Conclusion :- Nowadays, people are increasingly looking beyond the star’s appeal to see what else he or she brings to the table. They are being put under the scanner for their public work and contributions to their constituencies. And high time too. Star power mixed with political clout is a potent mix in celebrity-struck India. But the jury is still out on whether actors make for good politicians or not. While some are successful in establishing a connection with the electorate, the others soon discover that a country isn’t quite a movie set.