Tamil Cinema and Dravidian Politics - Later Years

Later Years

In post MGR years, political reference in Tamil cinema had been less sporadic. Rajinikanth, one of the highest paid actors in India, supported the DMK and its ally Tamil Maanila Congress in the 1996 elections. His movie Muthu (1995) makes indirect reference to the then AIADMK head and Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Jayalalitha. His movies such as Mannan and Padayappa had characters which were politically identified with Jayalalitha. He later moved his allegiance to the Bharathiya Janata Party in 2004 Parliament Lok Sabha elections. Rajinikanth is no longer active in politics. Another leading actor of Tamil film land Kamal Hasan is a well known follower of Periyar.

Two recent film stars have launched their own parties. Of them Vijaya T. Rajendran was well known supporter of DMK for a long time, although he did not incorporate its ideas into the movies. After a personal feud with the DMK leadership he launched his own party All India Latchiya Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam in 2004. The other Tamil film star being Vijayakanth who had earlier converted his fan clubs into social service organisations, initially as typical, Dravidian, for-the-Tamils. His party, Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam is now placing itself as an alternative to main-stream Dravidian parties.He is the Tamil Nadu opposite party president(Ethir Katchi Thalaivar). Vijayakanth himself is from a pro-Congress family.