Nov 4, 2008

India - No Chiranjeevi act as yet,but Rajni promises fans yatra

As pressure builds on Rajnikanth by his fans across Tamil Nadu to launch a political party, the 'Kollywood' superstar has told them that he has not taken a decision in this regard yet. He, however, has given enough hint that he is not completely averse to the idea either by saying that he will soon undertake a statewide tour to meet his fans.

During an interaction with his admirers on Monday at Sri Raghavendra Marriage Hall here, Rajnikanth said the answer to the question whether he would join politics or not would be "given by destiny and time". Only circumstances would decide the fate of one's success in politics, he said, but did not elaborate.

The launch of DMDK by actor Vijayakanth, AISMK by Sarathkumar, and most recently, the Praja Rajyam by Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi have spawned calls for formation of a party by his fans. Some of them in Coimbatore even launched an outfit with his photograph on the flag, which drew the ire of the actor even as the incident extracted a promise from him to discuss the matter with fans.

"If God directs me tomorrow, I will enter politics," the superstar told his fans on Monday amid cheers. He, however, told his fans that for the present his entire time and energy is being devoted to the production of upcoming Enthiram (Robot), a mega-budget thriller in the science fiction genre which stars Aishwarya Rai. Once this was over, he would have routine interactions with them, he assured his fans, who shouted slogans during one of the rare meetings with their idol.

"Initially, I wanted to do classical movies, but you wanted me to do mainstream commercial roles. I danced and fought on screen when you demanded so. I will not leave you," he said to a packed auditorium, when asked what he had done so far for his fans.

Earlier, when his fans in Coimbatore launched the Desiya Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DDMK) in his name and used his photograph on the 'party' flag, Rajnikanth reprimanded them for trying to "pressurise him to enter politics". In his statement then, he had said his fans were free to decide their choice of political affiliation, and could come with him if he decided to enter politics in future.

That Rajnikanth has been under pressure from his fans to launch a political outfit of his own is nothing unusual in Tamil Nadu, where politics is closely connected to the filmdom. Ever since present Chief Minister DMK's M Karunanidhi first assumed power in 1969, the state has been ruled by chief ministers who had direct connection to Kollywood, including Karunanidhi, AIADMK founder M G Ramachandran and later his protégé and present Opposition leader J Jayalalithaa.

Also, a prominent opposition voice who positions himself as an alternative to the DMK and AIADMK is yet another actor, Vijayakanth, who launched his DMDK after converting his fans' association into a political outfit just before the last Assembly elections in 2006.

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