VILLIANS & POLITICS

The Asian Age (Mar 2004)

By Skimmy Gupta

Popular Bollywood actors/actresses, models and TV artists engaged for campaigning by various political parties will add glamour and hype to the forthcoming elections. Bollywood villains assert the fact that presence of Bollywood stars will act as major crowd pullers. The baddies of Hindi film industry feel that even their own presence can help gather huge numbers during the election campaigning. Popular filmstars with a ‘positive’ public image will undoubtedly pull larger crowds. However, they strongly believe that actual votes will be cast due to party’s credibility and not mere ‘starry’ appearance of filmstars.

Actor and villian Ranjeet feels “Filmstars can only pull the crowds during election campaigning as their glamour and glitz can easily gather 200-300 crowd at any place. But the actual work has to be done by the party themselves. Congress has approached me but I am busy with my school. But I do campaigning wherever I am required. The main reason of filmstars who have joined politics is that most of them are retiring and some are under the pressure of ruling party. Politicians want huge crowds to convey their messages to public through filmstars .The image of Indian Politicians has been tarnished in the past so filmstars might induce some hope in eyes of public. Filmstars must do some constructive work for the society and not merely portrayed as crowd pullers.”

Bollywood actor Shakti Kapoor, better known for his villain roles recently announced his participation in forthcoming elections for Congress. He says “Without understanding anything about Indian Politics filmstars are joining different parties to hog the limelight. Unless they can convey the message of the party seriously ,they are of no use and can only gather crowds. Also some actors who do not know anything about politics but skip from one political party to another. I have a soft corner for Nehru family and people have forgotten about this family, which has sacrificed their life for the country. It is people’s choice to vote for their party. No politician has been able to make a mark like Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi or Rajiv Gandhi. Sonia Gandhi is no less than a mother India. A widow, she has been targeted as a foreigner but is dedicatedly working towards India’s progress.

Prem Chopra, a popular villain of yesteryear’s Hindi blockbusters says “Bollywood stars campaigning for different parties will definitely be crowd pullers. The stars can help rope in crowds but actual vote conversion depends of a party’s credibility and performance. Political parties have offered me to join their organizations but at present I am not associated with any party. Everyone has its own individual perception.”