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.
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.
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 !
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.
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 !
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 !
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