Kochi: It was Puratchi Thalaivar MGR who made the road from tinsel town to politics easy for superstars in Tamil Nadu where 40 fans of actor Vijay perished in a stampede at Karur during an election rally of the actor popularly known as ‘Illaya Dalapathi’.
It was an ego clash between M G Ramachandran or MGR and his buddy Karunanidhi that led MGR’s expulsion from DMK. MGR floated AIADMK which was voted to power on June 30, 1977 making MGR Chief Minister. Karunanidhi tried to downplay MGR’s popularity by tracing his origin from Kerala, but failed politically.
This was repeated in Andhra Pradesh where superstar N T Rama Rao floated Telugu Desam Party which was voted to power by people sick of Congress rule.
MGR’s death in 1987 led to the fall of AIADMK with no second in command to fill MGR’s place.
Again MGR’s heroine Jayalalithaa took control of the party to check Karunanidh’s DMK.
All other Tamil actors like Sivaji Ganesan,
Rajanikanth, Kamala Hassan, Vijaykanth remained ineffective in winning the hearts of people in Tamil Nadu except Vijay whose new party is making waves in Tamil Nadu where BJP, DMK, AIADMK are struggling to counter him.
Despite being most popular in Tamil Nadu, Rajnikant dropped his plans to take a plunge into politics due to health issues.
Vijay has earned tremendously with all his pictures making huge profits as an actor and film maker. Vijay’s decision to pay a relief of Rs 20 lakh to the family of the victims who perished on Saturday will help him further strengthen his position as the Chief of new party Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam.
No politics sans Tamil film legends
