The recent blitzkrieg on the electronic media around the lady companion ( or is it adopted daughter?) of a Godman-turned-Rapist has strengthened the view that women are no more the weaker sex. In fact, they are proving the proverbial phrase of "kandhe se kandha mila kar kaam karna" right all the time !
In Bollywood too, the villains have often been supported by their Mona darlings ( as Ajit used to address his molls) but there have been actresses who have played fulkl-fledged roles of vamps on their own. They knew how to scheme, bitch and honey-trap the straight guy, normally the hero !
Let us retrieve the memories of the actresses playing vamps in film after film, down the years.
The first name that comes to mind is no doubt, Nadira. A jew by birth, she had the looks and demenaour of the agressive woman who dominated the frame in which she appeared.
The villainous role of mother-in -law was almost copyrighted by none other than Lalia pawar. In the films of 50s to 70s, she single handedly destroyed many "sati-savitri" bahus by turning their simple husbands against them. Her physical appearance of a defective eye came in handy, giving her the manipulative edge , which convinced the audience that she is indeed the source of all that is villainous in the film. In the social/family dramas, ther was no need of a villain , if Lalita pawar was in the cast.
While on the topic of social/ family dramas, one can not but remember Manorama , whose devilish eyes and smile were always in sync. She played the evil chachi/mausi/bhabhi, much to the discomfort of her victims, the unsuspecting relatives at the receiving end.
Shashikala was another significant actress in the 60s who excelled in playing negative roles like jealous sister, wayward wife or a flirtatious socialite.
Helen had been a dancer and an integral part of the cast of films requiring a cabaret song. However, she also got cameos as the vilaain's moll ( who has eyes for the dashing hero, and often sacrifices herself , taking the bullet meant for him) or a freelancing rogue agent. Her seductive skills were often called for and unless the hero was a tough nut, they were mostly successful. Check out Helen seducing Ashok Kumar in this song.
The one actress who started to give Helen a run for her money was Bindu. Already married with kids, she had entered Hindi film industry quite late, but made up for the delay by bagging roles of scheming Bahu ( remember Do Raaste?) and young murderous wife of an old man (Joshila!), apart from other characters of dubious nature. Of course, she never got Lalita Pawar as her mom-in-law ( it would have been a treat to watch the duo scheming against each other, no holds barred !). She had Achala Sachdeva or Nirupa Roy as her helpless mom-in-law who, in the interest of their sons, kept on tolerating the ignominies thrusted on them.
Bindu played the seductress equally easily, almost effortlessly and her voluptous figure was instrumental in her getting such roles.
Aruna Irani also played the scorned woman ( hell hath no fury, as you all know) to perfection amongst other roles requiring her to inconvenience the heroines. In latter years she played a dominating mother in law in Beta, giving an exemplary performance.
Padma Khanna was another actress with a great figure , who shot to limelight with her strip tease in Johny Mera naam, but went on to play a lot of characters including bar dancer, con-woman and the other woman.
The list of actresses playing negative roles is quite long and each archetypal role got a newer actress to essay it. Faryal, Laxmi Chhaya, Kalpana Iyer, Shoma Anand in the 70s and 80s and Kashmeera Shah, Supriya Karnik and Mahie Gill have been playing vamps in layer years.
There have been heroines taking up negative roles too ( Priety Zinta in Armaan, Kajol in Gupt and Priyanka Chopra in Aitraaz are a few examples) , but that is a different story.
With the lead actresses exhibiting characteristics which were attributed to vamps at one time, the typecasted vamps have gone out of reckoning, at least in Bollywood!
Two incidents happened this week and became the trigger for this write-up. The opinion that India is ruled by "dynasts" in many fields was aired on foreign soil by a wannabe ruler.
Closer home, there was an edict by an important functionary of the ruling regime to re-write the history to embed in the minds of the pupils that Mughals were bandits and not one who should be held in awe. Re-writing history is tricky since there is a distinct possibility that different generations will view historical events from different perspectives , widening the already big generation gap.
However, the mention of the names of Mughal emperors makes one reminiscent of various Hindi films made on the life and times of these kings, who ruled the country for more than years, from Babur to Zafar.
Today we check out the Hindi films made as biographical sketches of Mughal emperors, with cinematic license already available with the film makers. Deviating from the usually adopted format of the narrative indexed on chronological release of the films, we follow the history.
The first of the Mughals was Babur, who laid the foundation of the Dynasty in 1526 and ruled for a mere 4 years. But this was enough to have a place of prayer named after him, which led to a lot of events in the country some 450 years after the ascent of Babur !
Two films were made with the title of Babur. Shahenshah Babur was a 1944 film starring Sheikh Mukhtar and Khursheed. The music was by Khemchand Prakash. Khursheed was at the top of hr popularity and had the lion's share of the songs.
Babar was again the central character in the eponymous film of 1960. This film had Gajanan Jagirdar and Azra , alongwith Shubha Khote. The musical combination of Roshan and Sahir ensured a melodious score. Sudha Malhotra sang this song written by Sahir, returning the emotional strokes with finesse.
Humayun, the son of Babar ruled for about 25 years in two spells and consolidated the empire , even after setbacks. This laid the basis of a long reign for the future emperor.
The films on Humayun are , understandably, not much. In 1945, there was a film with Ashok Kumar and Veena, named Humayun. Shamshad Begum got the most songs in the film. Ghulam Haider was the music director of the film.
Akbar has been the most celebrated Mughal Emperor.With nearly 50 years of uninterrupted reign and strategic alliances with Rajputs, coupled with a liberal outlook. He is largely considered to be an able administrator and a benevolent ruler.
No wonder, he has been featured the maximum number of times, whether it is directly or through the legend of Anarkali. An early film was the 1943 film Shahenshah Akbar.
There were two films made on Anarkali and her love story with Jahangir, the son of Akbar. In both these films, the role was Akbar was substantial.
The 1953 film had Pradeep Kumar and Bina Rai playing Salim and Anarkali. Akbar was played by Mubarak. The storyline of the film was a tussle between Akbar and Nadira ( whom he named Anarkali, since she asked for a pomegranate as a reward !) . The music of C.Ramchandra was brilliant and had the country swinging to the tunes of 10 songs sung by Lata Mangeshkar.
The other Anarkali film was the celebrated Mughal-e-Azam, in 1960. Madhubala as Anarkali, Dilip Kumar as Salim and Prithviraj Kapoor as Emperor Akbar etched their names in stone and the film continues to be one of the most popular films, 57 years after its release. The film was converted to colour and very recently, a dance-drama is being show-cased based on the iconic film.
Naushad's music and Lata Mangeshkar's voice meant that the film had songs which will be perennial hits. Add to that the two songs by Bade Ghulam Ali Khan and you have the most perfect casting in not only the acting department but also in the music department.
It was, indeed, very brave of the film maker Ashutosh Gowarikar to attempt a film on the love life of Akbar, showing him in his youth. This had not been attempted earlier, in any detail. Hritik Roshan played Akbar to Aishwarya Rai's Jodha. Akbar was shown in his true glory and his interactions in various matters were depicted with precise details. A.R.Rahman's music and Javed Akhtar's lyrics made the score of the film popular, in the times of meaningless words tuned to cacophonic drumbeats.
Jahangir ruled for 22 years, having got the throne from Akbar. He was known to be interested in art, science and architecture. He was considered a just emperor in the medieval times. Humayun was known to be a just ruler. it is said that he had a bell outside his palace which anybody could ring at any time and he had a right to be heard.
Apart from the films made on Anarkali, Prince Jahangir was featured in a film in 1955 called Adle-Jahangir. Pradeep Kumar and Meena Kumari played the lead.Before that, however, there were two other films: in 1930, Jahangir a silent film and a talkie in 1933. Sohrab Modi's Pukar in 1939 also was set in the times of Jahangir (played by Chandramohan) and Noor Jahan ( played by Naseem Banu). Adle Jahangir had music by Husnlal Bhagatram and lyrics by Qamar jalalabadi. This song from the film is one of the most melodious ones to have been included in a score
The fifth Mughal emperor, Shah Jahan is one of the most featured royalty, primarily because of Taj Mahal, the monument of love that he made. Shah Jahan ruled for 30 years and marked the beginning of the end, in a way. He had seen the power struggle in his early years and that made him a ruthless ruler.
Saigal was the first one to play Shah Jahan in the film of the same name in 1946, paired with Ragini. He was the reigning star -singer and dominated the film's music . Naushad's music and Majrooh Sultanpuri's words were brought alive by Saigal's rendition.
A couple of years earlier Mumtaz Mahal was the central character in the film of the same name. Khursheed and Chandramohan were the actors.Again in 1957, there was a film, which had P.Jairaj and Shiela Ramani. However, the two films which made history, pun intended, were Taj Mahal ( 1963) and Jahan Ara ( 1964).
Taj Mahal had Pradeep Kumar and Meena Kumari and the hit combination of of Roshan and sahir. The msuic was superhit and the the icing on the cake was this eternal call of love
.
Jahan Ara was about the daughter of Shah Jahan and had Bharat Bhushan and Mala Sinha in the lead roles, the emperor being played by Prithviraj Kapoor. The composer was Madan Mohan and he chose Talat Mehmood to be the singer for the film, against stiff opposition. The quality of songs validated his instincts.
Taj Mahal was the topic of two other films, one in 1941 and the other in 2005.
Taj Mahal: An Eternal Love Story was the 2005 film, made by Akbar Khan. The lead pair ( for Shah Jahan and Mumtaz Mahal ) was Zulfi Sayed and Sonya Jahan, the grand daughter of Noor Jahan. Kabir Bedi played the old Shah Jahan and Arbaaz Khan was in the role of Aurangzeb.
The music was by Naushad, who had been the composer of many of Noor Jahan's songs, bridging the generation gap !
With the ascent of Aurangzeb, music was banned and therefore, he can never be a topic for a musical. A film named Aurangzeb did get made , but it was about mafia wars in Gurgaon, with the lead mafioso being named after the heartless king.
The last emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar had the ignominy of being exiled in a place miles away from his country and even if all the verses attributed to him were by someone else, they echoed his plight so well. The film Lal Qila ( 1960) was based on his life , P.Jairaj playing the role of the Last Mughal.
A sad end to a glorious tale of conquering rulers.
The heinous murder of a journalist shocked the nation , bringing out the issues of intolerance to dissent and vulnerability of the person pursuing the profession of journalism. The media, whether print or electronic ( and now social...er anti-social is a better term, with all that muck being thrown around), is there to express what is feels like doing. Getting hit for doing your job is antithetical to democracy.
Journalists have been portrayed in Hindi films since 50s. However, there have been very few films made around the topic of news reporting. There have been lead players enacting the roles of reporters and journalists, being part of a story that often has no connection to the plot.
Rarely has been the subject of newspaper reporters been dealt in its entirety in Hindi films. Their pressures, their limitations and their motivations...none of this has been picturised in a sensitive manner, despite the fact that before the advent of TV, this was the main source of news and views. The spurt had been there in the 80s, following the spree of investigative journalism which was highlighted at that time.
The right time to explore the presence of print journalists, editor and newspapers in our Hindi films. The electronic media is kept out of the purview, as it deserves a write-up separately.
But there have been moments, surely....
The Raj Kapoor- Nargis pair had a lot of great love stories to their credit. The remake of the famous film Roman Holiday was one of their best films. Chori Chori (1956) was about a runaway heiress and a reporter wanting to get a scoop. Raj played the reporter who tags himself along with the rich girl and being a romantic comedy, they fall in love. Many twist and turns later, they unite. The part about journalism is minimal and is cosmetic in nature.
In 1962, a film was made with the title Reporter Raju ( 1962). The film was a crime thriller with songs and a qawwali and little to do with journalism, but had a dashing Feroz Khan in the role of reporter-cum-crime buster. Again, a token reference to newspaper reporting in an otherwise b grade masala film.
The reporting continued to be treated in a manner which was far removed from the real thing. In Elaan ( 1971), a newpaper reporter is on an investigative assignment. This evokes interest till you realise that he is after a scientist n an island who has invented a gadget to make people invisible ! Vinod Mehra plays the journalist ( or the lack of it !) in another C grade fantasy/drama.
It was in the 80s that we had three films, each of which showed, with some seriousness, what goes around in the lives of those who choose to make journalism their profession.
The first one of them was a iconic satire we all love to see : Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron ( 1983). The investigative reporter-duo get drawn into a web of deceit and machinations by editor of a journal, a lady who knows what she's after. Naseeruddin Shah and Ravi Vaswani play the often bumbling investigative reporter-duo , at her command. It may have been the first instance of the role of a media-person being based on a real-life editor: Bhakti Barve playing Shobha De nee Rajyadhyaksh. The journal was named , aptly Crimes of India ! . Add to that the characters of a builder and a corporator and you have a first class dark comedy/satire which ends with "hum honge kaamyaab", a left-handed compliment to the establishment. The film did show some streaks of the world of journalism, specially that of colour yellow, but the focus was elsewhere and rightly so.
Mashaal ( 1984) saw Dilip Kumar publishing a newspaper Dainik Aelaan which brings him into confrontation with an underworld don, which leads to his life getting turned upside down. A young black marketeer, played by Anil Kapoor, also come into his life, whom he is able to reform and turn into a journalist. The presence of a bearded Alok Nath as editor of Anil Kapoor, meant that the journal Comrade Daily was , indeed, a Left-leaning paper. The transformation of an upright person into a criminal was the crux of the story and the journalism angle was but a ploy to achieve the objective. Still, the film had its moments and gave a peek into small-time reporting.
In the same year, there was a film which was a close approximation of a real-life incident involving a journalist. Ashwin Sareen, an investigative journalist with Indian Express got hint of flesh trade in rurla parts of MP and actually bought a girl, to expose the system. The incident provoked Vijay Tendulkar to pen his play Kamla , on which Jagmohan Mundhra made a film with Marc Zuber and Deepti Naval. For the first time an ugly reality was laid bare in cinema , surprisingly with competent performances.
In 1986, we had our most authentic film about news and aspects related to it. An idealistic news editor played by Shashi Kapoor becomes a pawn in the hands of both the ruling disposition and the Opposition. The close-to-realistic depiction of the life of a daily newspaper editor, the intricate web of politics, media and underworld and the perils of idealism, all made the film a landmark.
In 1987, we had another film called New Delhi. Here Jeetendra played the idealist reporter and paid the price of it. However, unlike other Jeetendra films, this was an off-beat film and exposed the nexus of politicians and media owners to the hilt. Based loosely on the Irving Wallace's novel The Almighty, the film was a judicious mix of commerce and art.
While there were bits and pieces of roles of reporter/editor in many films like Rishi Kapoor in Coolie, Sridevi/Annu Kapoor in Mr. India ( 1987), Vijayendra in Shahenshah ( 1988) and Dev Anand in Sachche Ka Bolbala ( 1989) , there was no example of a well-written, meaty role portraying either a journalist or an editor, with all the profession-related issues . A better representation was in the film Main Azaad Hoon ( 1989), in which Shabana Azmi played the reporter who uses Amitabh Bachchan to take on the corrupt politicians.
The Nineties were relatively sparse in churning out films with journalism as the main theme or even a backdrop.
For example, in the film Mohra ( 1994), Raveena Tandon plays a journalist ( also the daughter of a jailer) , who gets hitched to a police officer who is undercover. Less of journalism and more of drama and masala was what the film was all about. No pretensions here, as the heroine dances to her heart's content and the investigative streak gets thrown out of the window, as easily as it had been shown.
Roman Holiday and Chori Chori had a reprisal in form of Dil Hai Ki Maanta Nahin
( 1997) , in which Aamir Khan plays the role of a reporter, often at loggerhead with his editor Tiku Talsaniya. The rich girl who is fond of eloping was played by Pooja Bhatt. The storyline did not have much scope for any serious statement on journalism, as expected.
In the last decade and a half, very few films have covered the topic of print media, and that too with limited extent of emphasis.
Page 3 ( 2005) gave a more extensive insight into the various aspects of an Indian newspaper: Page Three reporting , Crime reporting and roles of media barons and the politicians who control them. Also, the close connections that the "people-who-matter" have with the newspaper guys. Konkona Sen Sharma plays the protagonist reporter to Boman Irani's portrayal of her editor. The film managed to convey the machinations as well as the emotional content, making it an eminently watchable experience.
The depiction of Agony Aunt...er Agony Uncle was the highlight of the film Home Delivery ( 2005), in which Vivek Oberoi plays the Gyan Guru in the newspaper The Times of Hindustan, his editor being played by Juhi Chawla. However, the extent of exposure journalism was very limited and the story was having many more fronts to be tackled.
Guru ( 2007) was a film based on the life of Dhirubhai Ambani. it had a strong role of a newspaper Swatantra, editor, played by Mithun Chakraborty. The role was based on R.P.Goenka, the media baron. The intrepid reporter, who exposes the wrong-doings of the industrialist Guru, was played by R.Madhavan The interaction of media and business in the times preceding the electronic invasion are on display in the film quite effectively.
The last film to have shown print medium in some part was the film based on Nanavati case, Rustom ( 2016), which shows the power of newspaper in forming public opinion. The editor of the paper played by Kumud Mishra ( reminding you of Russi Karanjia of Blitz fame ) leaves no stone unturned in generating support for the naval officer accused of murder, played by Akshay Kumar.
With the TV reporting coming into its own, the focus of films having storylines around journalism shifted to electronic media , leaving the print media way behind.
With Kamal Hasan ready to take a plunge into politics , the list of actors who joined politics gets a new entry , and a big one. In South India, this has been a time-tested tradition, with giants like MGR, NTR and Jayalalitha ruling the people, first through their cinema and then through their policies.
However, a distinction is to be made , which is really important. There are actors/celebrities who have got into Parliament through what we generally refer as back-door i.e getting nominated to Rajya Sabha either through the Presidential quota ( can appoint 12 members for their contributions to art, literature, science, and social services) or piggybacking on a popular political party.
Very few actors from Hindi film scene have got into Parliament by contesting and winning a Lok Sabha election !
Let's see which are the real 'abhineta'-turned-'netas' ...
The earliest instance of a Hindi film actor getting into Parliament was probably Prithviraj Kapoor. That was, however, a nomination in Rajya Sabha by President, acknowledging the stature of the thespian. Nargis was also nominated to Rajya Sabha in 1980-81, but she could not complete her tenure due to her demise.
Interestingly, when the filter of public voting is applied , you realise how few film stars have been able to win an election on their own charisma, even if they are supported by a political unit. In most cases , they were pitted against seasoned politicians or fellow stars and it is commendable that they triumphed.
The 60s and 70s had minimal interaction of politicians and film stars, at least in Bollywood. The Rajya Sabha nominations meant a pretty face in the normally drab and boring atmosphere of Parliament, when the stars chose to attend. Probabaly the makers of the Constitution also thought that the full-time professionals of the entertainment industry would not be able to compete for a strenuous exercise like a Lok Sabha election. This makes it more intriguing as such film-wallahs have broken themyth !
It will also be interesting to explore the correlation of induction of film stars in the Lower House to the changing climate of Indian politics.The first time we heard something of this ind was when the elections of 1977 were announced. After the Emergency was lifted, the elections saw Janata party sweep the polls. At that time, it was rumoured that Dev Anand would be floating a party and will stand for elections, but that did not happen.
The first batch of "elected" representatives were in 1984 elections and there were three of them, all standing for Congress party.
Sunil Dutt had earlier been nominated as Sheriff of Bombay, a titular position which gave him a chance to work for the common man. In 1984, he was picked up for the Mumbai North West seat and he won the elections, defeating Ram Jethmalani. He was a serious leader and worked a lot for his constituency. He won four more elections from the same seat, which shows the mass based leader which he was.
Vyjantimala got a ticket from Congress Party to contest the Lok Sabha seat of South Chennai against seasoned parliamentaria Era Sezhiyan of Janata Party. She defeated the political heavyweight by a handsome margin. She won the next Lok sabha elections also, beating DMK's Alladi Aruna. She remained in the party for quite some time, but at one stage tendered her resignation from the party, unhappy with its functioning. She joined BJP in 1999.
The other star to have got through was Amitabh Bachchan, contesting for Congress in 1984, when he defeated Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, a heavy-weight candidate of Opposition from the prestigious Allahabad seat. A close friend of Rajiv Gandhi, Bachchan was hand-picked to counter Bahuguna. As such, the Congress won on sympathy vote and this made Bachchan's job easier.
This, however, set a precedent and apart from the Box-Office, a win at the hustings also became a benchmark of popularity for the film stars.
Jayalalitha had come into politics, encouraged by MGR and had held posts of General Secretary in the party in early 80s. But the first election she contested was in 1989, in which she won comfortably. Jayalalitha finds a place in this list because of her solitary appearance in a Bollywood film Izzat ( 1968) , in which she danced sensuously to seduce Dharmendra. The song was also quite popular and played on Vividh Bharti frequently.
The politics of 90s shaped the destiny of the country like no other decade. The trigger was what which happened in December 1989, when Chandrashekhar was outwitted by V.P.Singh and Devi Lal, established VP as the Prime Minister with support of both Left and BJP.
However, the ex-Young Turk ( the reference pertaining to his days in Congress earlier in his career when he alongwith Feroze Gandhi, Satyendra Narain Sinha, Mohan Dharia and Ram Dhan were called Young Turks ! ) hit back when he got the support of Rajiv Gandhi and formed the Government. The honeymoon was over soon and the country was staring at elections in 1991, just 16 months after the earlier elections in 1989. The Mandal-Mandir issue was at the forefront and BJP seemed to be getting an upper hand , but with the assassination of Rajiv Gandhi, the public gave the green signal to Congress.
Owing to the religious fervour, two of BJP's candidates who were part of Ramayana serial, got elected to Lok Sabha in 1991. Arvind Trivedi ( who played Ravana) and Deepika Chikhlia ( Seeta) won their contests from Gujrat and entered Lok Sabha, thereby becoming the first TV artistes to have crossed over from Showbiz to Politics.
Also in 1991, Rajesh Khanna was chosen by Congress to counter Lal Krishna Advani, who was fighting from two places Delhi and Gandhinagar. Khanna had come close to Congress after his arch-rival Amitabh Bachchan was disillusionised and had left politics. He gave Advani a scare but could not beat him.
However, in 1992 Advani retained the seat of Gandhinagar and in the bye-election to Delhi, Rajesh Khanna was again fielded. BJP put up Khanna's friend Shatrughan Sinha to make it a tight contest. Rajesh Khanna won the seat, but did not forgive Sinha ever. This was told by Sinha later and they did patch up just before Kaka's death.
The next elections were held in 1996 and this time BJP again found a television icon, Nitish Bharadwaj ( who played Krishna in Mahabharat) to represent them.
In another two years' time another general Elections were held and this time, in 1998, BJP managed to get the maximum number of seats, though not a majority. Atal Bihari Vajpayee was able to form a government. It was during these elections that Vinod Khanna got elected from Gurdaspur on a BJP ticket. He was termed as a serious politician with a lot of work done at ground level.He won two other elections from the same seat later.
The collapsing of minority governments meant a fresh election in 1999. Raj Babbar who had entered politics a decade earlier was with Samajwadi Party and had been a Rajya Sabha member for three terms. In 1999, however, he took the plunge and got elected from Agra. It is a different matter that he is now in Congress party.
The aaya ram-gaya ram of Indian politics stretched to the stars, too !
As India Shining bit dust , thanks to 2004 elections , we saw Congress back in power after 8 years.. However, the elections that year converted three film stars into full time politicians.
We had Govinda becoming an MP on a Congress ticket. However, it is to the credit of Govinda that he resigned his seat in 2008, when he realised that with his film commitments, he can not do justice to his constituency.
Dharmendra got a BJP ticket and joined the Lok Sabha, alongwith his heroine of a few films Jayaprada ( who contested from Samajwadi Party, after leaving Telugu Desam, her first party ).Both Dharmendra and Jayaprada are still part of political set ups and continue to be active in politics.
The elections in 2009 again saw two stars getting the nod of the public, one each from North and South.
South Indian actor Chiranjeevi ( who also acted in Hindi films e.g. Pratibandh) joined politics in 2008 and started his own party Praja Rajyam, which won 18 seats in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly. Chiranjeevi himself won from Tirupati. later he merged his party with Congress and in 2009.
Shatrughan Sinha who had been defeated 18 years ago by Rajesh Khanna, made his Lok Sabha debut by winning for BJP this year. He trounced Shekhar Suman, another film and TV artiste. He had been in Rajya Sabha for two terms since 1996, but this was the real thing:getting chosen by electorate.
The growing presence of film stars may be seen as an admission of political parties not being sure of having grass root candidates from their cadre to be fielded. This was a feature wholly absent before the 80s, as we have seen in the narrative today. The props of film stars may give th political parties a seat or two, but it damages the confidence of grass root workers.
The last elections held in this country has thrown up no less than 6 film stars at the hustings to see them race past the finishing line. The majority of them were with BJP ( Hema Malini, Paresh Rawal, Kirron Kher, Manoj Tiwari and Babul Supriyo) while Moon Moon Sen joined on the TMC candidature.
The influx of the film stars is expected to increase, as the public gets disappointed with the political leaders and chooses the silver screen hero as the saviour, in true Bollywood style !
