What is paving way for cinemas into politics ?

If I have to identify three things that are common to cinema and politics, those would be loyalty, identity and interest articulation

It is popularly said that one needs money or muscle (2m) power or both to enter Indian politics. A third 'm' - movie has been making itself more visible. Though the affair between cinema and politics has a long history, the factors contributing to the nexus are not very clear. There are regional variations with respect to the extent of overlap of political and cinema fields. History shows that Southern India's experience is different from that of the north's. A few actor-turned-politicians floated their own parties and also were able to form governments. NTR (AP) and MGR (TN) are the classic cases. In the north, the cine participation confined to contesting elections on traditional party tickets and becoming legislators representing both people as well as the cinema industry.

This article is to try and understand what special factors laid such deep roots of cinema in politics, in South India (more specific to AP). People from both north and south equally encouraged and loved movies and thereby the actors. The craze is evident from the fact that people love to wait for hours infront of the actors' houses just to get a glimpse of their heros and heroines. The love shown by audience was unconditional both on screen and off screen. An anecdotal evidence from my grandmother - when she visited Madras as a tourist, she and her family waited for an hour just to get a glimpse of Telugu actor N T Rama Rao.

Though this was the scenario through out the country, two important factors that were more specific to South India are - language and religion. Unlike Hindi, which was spoken in many of the northern states, southern languages were prevalent in more confined geographical regions. And difficulty in understanding Hindi, drew the audience even closer to their respective film industries. Though Amitabh might be popular through out the north, when it comes to identifying him with a particular state, it would be difficult; whereas N T Rama Rao was identified with telugu people in Andhra Pradesh and same was the case with M G Ramachandran in Tamil Nadu.

Religion was another factor. Films based on mythological stories from Epics like Ramayan and Mahabharat were large in number. More importantly, people favourite actors played major roles in them - Rama, Krishna, etc. It is very difficult to imagine Amitabh Bachchan in the role of a Ram or Krishn; while people would not have hesitated to fold their hands in prayer in front of NTR's picture clad in Lord Ram or Lord Krishn's attire (though a bit exaggerated, not totally wrong). Such a devotion both on screen and off screen, somewhere blurred the lines between devotion to God and loyalty to an actor. This is clearly manifested in the number of statues built for the actors and a few instances where temples were also built for them.

If I have to identify three things that are common to cinema and politics, those would be loyalty, identity and interest articulation. In south, the "fan following" culture is seen prominently. Fans remain loyal to their actors; more loyal than their counterparts in political parties where opportunism, pragmatism etc also play simultaneously. Movies/Actors give people two types of identity - one, being fan of so and so actor is an identity in itself; two - a national and an international identity through language. I experienced this personally. Once I have been to a temple in Varanasi, and the priest there asked me the place I am coming from. I replied - "Andhra" and he immediately identified me with "NTR?" and so many such anecdotes from international experiences are also available. The last common thing is interest articulation. Usually Tollywood is audience driven industry, as in, the director may not kill the protogonist in the story just because the audience wouldn't like to see him/her die. This might be a very trivial example, but since the actors catered to the interests of the masses, they were able to withstand the political pressures. For example, without paying heed to loss of revenue to the State exchequer, NTR imposed a ban on alcohol.

Thus loyalty, identity and interest articulation are the basic building blocks paving path from cinema to politics. This has reduced the entry barrier into politics for many. Nevertheless, it confines to giving entry advantage only. As the interest articulated by the leaders change, and if the performance is not upto people's expectations, emotions play very less role and wisdom comes to fore. FOr instance, Chiranjeevi a renowned Telugu movie actor floated his own party - Praja Rajyam Party (PRP) and was supported by people wholly based on the craze they have for him. Later when they realised that he is low on political acumen, he is being ignored.

There might be so many other factors acting simultaneously like caste, money, manifesto, political situation in the State etc. But this affair between politics and cinema has a long way to go, especially in South India.