How fans of South Indian heroes are blurring lines between stardom and politics

In fact, the murder case that has led Darshan to jail involves fans. Police sources say Renukaswamy from Chitradurga, a fan of Darshan, had allegedly sent lewd comments and abusive messages to Darshan’s friend Pavithra Gowda on Instagram. Darshan had tracked Renukaswamy with the help of Raghavendra, a member of his fan association in Chitradurga. The police say Darshan told him to get Renukaswamy to Bengaluru. Subsequently, Renukaswamy’s body was found near an apartment in the city on June 8. Raghavendra and Gowda are among the accused in the case and are also in custody.

Meanwhile, as Darshan was being arrested, hundreds of his fans gathered to raise slogans in support of the 47-year-old actor who waved at them from a caged police van.

Over the years, fans have moved beyond bursting firecrackers, leading processions, dancing in theatres and worshipping cutouts of their heroes. Be it in Sandalwood or the Kannada film industry, Kollywood in Tamil Nadu or Tollywood in Andhra Pradesh, actors, campaigning for politicians and becoming part of the realpolitik in their respective States, are changing the star-fan equation.

It has moved from mere hero worship to political and social mobilisation, with ample engagement through social media. The fan today is both a troll and a performer. With party-cadre-corporate precision, South Indian fan clubs occupy internet space as soon as the curtains go up. Sometimes, it’s earlier, when the film trailers are dropped.

For 34-year-old Raghu Dema, the obsession began in 2001, when as a 11-year-old he watched Kushi, a career-defining romantic Telugu film with Pawan Kalyan in the lead. Growing up with his cousins in a small village on the outskirts of Hyderabad, he had a ritual: catching the 4 am show of every Kalyan movie, putting up posters of his favourite star at the local theatre, garlanding it and even doing a palabhishekham (ritual of bathing Hindu deities in milk) for Kalyan’s posters.

A larger-than-life flexi cutout of Pawan Kalyan.

He still remembers meeting his “god” in January 2012. Kalyan, who heads the Janasena Party and is now the deputy Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, was at a film shooting in Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad. “I spotted him on a Harley Davidson. He was wearing blue jeans, a white T-shirt and Ray-Ban. I took 15 minutes to recover from seeing him,” says Raghu, a Hyderabad-based software engineer, who works in the US taxation department of a major company.

He slowly connected with other Kalyan fans — who say they subscribe to an ideology called ‘Pawanism’ — at the star’s film-related events and started getting involved with other programmes. “We would collaborate with designers to create display pictures, share and trend them before his films. Leading up to his birthday in 2020, his fans, who are spread out across the country, made a record 65 million tweets of a particular photo of him,” says Raghu.

“But I had to do more than celebratory events. I had to mould myself to Pawan Kalyan’s social service ideology,” he adds. And that’s what he did — organising a local blood donation camp and joining hands with other fans for other charitable work in the state.

In Karnataka, Darshan, too, has fan clubs that operate at the village and state levels. The larger DBoss Fans Club has lakhs of members, between the 15 and 35 age group. All of his appearances and movie promotions are entirely handled by his fans on social media.

They owe an intense allegiance to Darshan, who they feel climbed up the ladder on his own merit. It has earned him the moniker ‘Challenging Star’. His philanthropy work in various parts of Karnataka, especially in the Old Mysuru region, with the help of his fan club, has solidified his base.

In Tamil Nadu, the link between cinema, fans and politics is legendary. Cinema was one of the mediums through which the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) took its message to the masses. Its founder CN Annadurai championed the use of cinema for political causes, paving the way for influential figures like Karunanidhi as a writer and MGR as an actor to emerge alongside stars such as Sivaji Ganesan. These cinema icons of the 1950s were not just entertainers but ‘party actors’ whose films served as powerful political messaging tools. Profits and remuneration from their work often supported the party, intertwining art with political activism. When screen icon MG Ramachandran joined the DMK in 1953, he was the party’s chief crowd-puller. When he formed the AIADMK in 1972, the fans continued to support him.

Several other actors tried to make that transition to politics, including a star like Rajnikanth. His followers have made a religion of their devotion. MGR, too, had a similar fandom and people killed themselves when he died. It was also political and attached to the Dravidian movement and the ecosystem around that. But Rajinikanth fans revealed a new tribe — when a new film would release, they gathered in thousands, armed with garlands and cans of milk to pour over his cutouts. There were incidents of fans lighting camphor on their palms as they prayed for the film’s success. It was his fans who transformed theatres into temples.While the MGR phenomenon blurred the line between politics and cinema, with Rajinikanth, it was the suspension of reality and cinema.

Fans offer prayers for a Rajinikanth film

But now, a new generation is trying to catapult the mass euphoria of fans into political dividends. At the forefront is Vijay, the state’s largest superstar, whose fan association, the Vijay Makkal Iyakkam (VMI), is transforming into a political force. This fan group, now rebranded and launched as the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), Vijay’s political party, has evolved over the last 15 years. It was driven by community activities, including charities, educational initiatives, food and wheelchair distributions, blood donation camps and tuition classes for children.

R Ramkumar, the spokesperson of TVK, says that VMI has 75,000 units and 18.75 lakh active members currently. “As we are converting it to TVK, the recent online membership drive brought in 75 lakh new members, with a target of 2 crore. TVK’s structure spans all 234 Assembly constituencies in the state,” he adds. While Vijay’s films dominate the Tamil box office, he remains an elusive figure to many of his closest supporters. Most TVK office bearers say that opportunities to meet him in person are rare. But his influence is undeniable. A picture of him standing on a compound wall to calm a crowd outside his Neelankarai home last month went viral, proving the fervour of his followers. The twin power of his star presence and his fan club’s influence is what Vijay is counting on as he makes his move to politics.

Ajith, known for his intense fan base, follows a different path. He disowns fan clubs, avoiding organised fandom. Despite this, his fans remain fiercely loyal. His private nature and passion for bike races set him apart from his peers, yet his films continue to command a strong market, sometimes even surpassing Rajinikanth’s. Though the Rajini Makkal Mandram (RMM) remains active, its influence is waning. “Our fans are older now, in their 50s and 60s, unlike Vijay’s and Ajith’s youthful base,” says a senior member.

With younger fans joining these clubs, social media engagement has increased. “Our support for Pawan Kalyan grew when he started taking up causes like the kidney ailments in Uddhanam, Srikakulam district of Andhra Pradesh. We provided all digital support. Most of the fans, who are in college, realised the importance of social impact and Kalyan’s political journey,” says Raghu.

There are many such stories of fandoms in the Telugu states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where commercial films, their stars and families occupy a central role in society. The most prominent of these is the Akhila Bharata Chiranjeevi Yuvatha, the official fan club of Chiranjeevi, one of the most popular actor in Tollywood and Kalyan’s brother. The organisation has a presence in Thailand, Malaysia, the US, Canada and Sri Lanka.

R Swami Naidu, who heads the organisation as well as the Chiranjeevi blood bank and charitable trust, says, “I had studied mechanical engineering and moved to Hyderabad from East Godavari for a job. I was posted on night duty and I would spend all my mornings with the one intention of meeting Chiranjeevi garu.” When he did meet Chiranjeevi, the meeting was as dramatic.

“There was a flood in the coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh in 1996. I went to Chiranjeevi garu for help. He immediately stepped in, called medical teams from Hyderabad and distributed blankets. It was almost like a god who was stepping in. He was dressed in all white and was like Venkateshwara swamy (an avatar of Lord Vishnu).”

Megastar Chiranjeevi greets fans

There are several fans like Naidu who travel long distances on buses and trains, in the hope of meeting their favourite actor. Says Naidu, “We have a wide network in villages, and across states like Karnataka, Odisha and Tamil Nadu. There are 18,000 registered Chiranjeevi fan organisations and, of course, across the globe, too.” Diaspora groups are involved with managing the events of Chiranjeevi and his family of actors — which includes son Ram Charan of RRR (2022)— when they travel to those countries.

Says Vijay Repalle, a software engineer based in Cincinnati, who handles the US operations of the Akhila Bharata Chiranjeevi Yuvatha, “After winning the Padma Bhushan recently, Chiranjeevi had come to America. We organised his visit. For his 50th birthday in 2014, we held blood donation drives in all 50 states. He appreciates us and our work and reaches out to us on Whatsapp.”

But not everything is as celebratory with fans. There have been times when social media platforms have become battlegrounds. A Darshan fan, Chethan, was recently arrested for allegedly abusing producer Umapathy Gowda and actor Pratham for speaking against the Kannada actor.

Online wars are now business. A fan association member, who doesn’t want to be named, says it is as organised as a corporate firm. “There are loyal fans who promote their stars and there are some people who indulge in negative campaigns. For established stars, it may not matter to invest in such clubs but for the budding stars, it matters a lot,” he says.

He classifies the process into three parts. “The fans who are members of the association are involved in promotions throughout the year. The intensity increases ahead of a film release. At that time, the marketing section of the production team approaches social media influencers to promote the film. Then there are fan pages involved in negative campaigns who get paid by the actor or the team to put another star in a bad light. It is usually done by using a virtual private network,” he says. A content or graphic designer is then roped in by the fans’ association head. The message goes to district fans on social media platforms, which is then shared or reposted. And before long, it goes viral.

There was a time that a movie was measured by the days it ran in theatres. Then came the Rs 100-crore collection. Now, prior to the release of a film, the trailer itself gets a million views, much of which come from promotions by fans, and, more often than not, from bots.

Umesh Banakar, vice-president of Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce, says that there were minor star wars in the 1990s and 2000s but those were unofficially resolved by actors and seniors. Now with the Internet, it is no longer in their control.

However, despite the intensity of attacks among fan associations in Karnataka, it’s far less than what it is in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana or Tamil Nadu. “Many of the stars have turned politicians. In Karnataka, stars have not entered politics though they had several offers. Earlier, actors like Raj Kumar and Vishnuvardhan got offers too, but they always stayed away. They were aware of what it could result in and they wanted to remain in the hearts of the people, as artistes,” says Banakar.