The curious case of toxic fandom of Tamil cinema

On September 2, 2020, three ardent fans of Pawan Kalyan wanted to celebrate the birthday of their star, who is fondly called Powerstar. As part of the celebrations, six fans tried to erect a huge banner for the actor-politician, and they came in contact with a live electric wire. Three fans were electrocuted to death, while the rest suffered injuries.

One can go searching for such tragic stories online and they would keep piling up. “That’s what will happen here. There’s no other way,” says prolific Tamil writer Charu Nivedita, who is known for his unabashed criticism of Tamil cinema and culture. Charu has been writing about the appalling fandom in Tamil cinema for decades, and according to him, the biggest reason behind such culture is the existential void. “We as humans are bored and need some sort of ‘let out’. For me, literature filled the void. For our society, it is cinema. The youngsters need some sort of hold in life and they, unfortunately, hold on to cinema over everything else,” he says.

However, as a cultural critic, Charu says things have gone from bad to worse over the years. “The quality of entertainment has gone down immensely. Back then, during my youth, we had magazines, we had Kalki (a magazine known for its novels like Ponniyin Selvan), and a few other avenues. Now, it has come down to this reel-making generation, where our dances and songs are all about cinema. Even if you chance upon cultural events in schools, you will find kids dancing to only cinema music because we don’t know anything else,” he adds.

Dr. Mini Rao, a Chennai-based psychologist with a decade-long experience in clinical psychology, says it is all due to the lack of focus and guidance for the youth. “It is unhealthy voyeurism to follow an actor or actress and note every minute detail of their life right from where they are going for a vacation to what they are wearing. It’s all because youngsters always crave someone to look up to, a role-model figure. Unfortunately, they end up choosing the wrong ones. For some, an actor might be a fit, but one shouldn’t do ridiculous things like dancing on top of a lorry. It just means they need guidance to channelise the energy for something constructive. Psychologically, it is due to the gap between the parents and the children. They don’t communicate enough, and over generations, parents have become a bit lenient towards their kids. There’s emotional blackmailing involved and fear of the young ones doing something untoward. These are my observations based on my patients.”

Another reason for such crazy fandom is social media, opines filmmaker CS Amudha, who parodied stardom in his debut film Tamizh Padam. “Earlier, fandom was a private thing. You would put up a poster in your room and things like that. With social media, a sense of community has formed. Millions of people are watching things together, which creates a sense of us vs them. Also, such fandom has always been around. The only difference now is that with social media it can be intensified and moblised. For example, if a celebrity tweets I am going to go to this shop and have tea, thousands can assemble there. That wasn’t possible before.”

On top of that being an ardent or even a crazy fan of someone has its own incentive. With every release of a big film, there are videos of fans from theatres making animated and dramatic statements, which go viral on social media. Though many such videos are shared as ‘cringe’ content among netizens, the idea is ‘any publicity is good publicity’.

A solution to such menace cannot come even from the stars, opines Amudhan. “​​Both Ajith and Vijay have gone on record telling fans to not indulge in extreme behaviour during celebrations. But I don’t think that matters to fans. I think after a point, the actor actually stops being part of the equation. The object of fandom ceases to be relevant. It is just about the fight you can have about the box office collection, openings, and things. The stars are just an excuse for them to fight.”

In fact, stars coming out to address the situation can be counter-productive, according to the director, who says that such focused attention from stars can lead to fans trying to emulate the victims of such accidents. “Let’s say some star goes and mourns the death. Seeing the attention… we never know, one fan can go, ‘Hey, look Ajith will come and talk about my death’ and do something intentionally. So, a star has to think about all these aspects. The entire blame then will fall on the star, right? The solution can be only a combined effort of theatre owners, the government, and the stars… saying let’s not have these problematic shows, for example.”

On the other hand, Dr Mini Rao says that change can come only from an individual. “I would say charity begins at home. A lot of parents are obsessed with TV serials and Bigg Boss. Seeing that their kids follow suit holding on to cinema and actors. Parents have to show the way.”

On 18th January, a philanthropist named ENS Sekar contributed Rs 1 lakh to Bharath Kumar’s family, and it is by far the only recorded help that has come to the family.

Meanwhile, Ajith Kumar’s Thunivu has collected more than Rs 200 crore, according to film trade analysts. Days after the movie’s release, Ajith was spotted in Chennai airport. Reportedly, he has gone for a vacation to an undisclosed location.