While talking about stars and celebrities how can I exclude the fans?
Roopa Swaminathan (Author of Star Dust book) is absolutely right. ‘A search for the words ‘fan club’ typed on the search engine Google on the internet comes up with over 61,000 hits and pretty much all of them have the following two words in them. Tamil Nadu. Think that’s an exaggeration? Is it really that far from the truth? Not really. Reality is that all 61,000 hits and more just might show up the words ‘Tamil Nadu’ in them except that not all the rasigar manrams are actually online.
Everything exists in a state of extended exaggeration in the state of Tamil Nadu. Not much separates the ‘real ‘world from the ‘real’; Movies, politics and ordinary life are inextricably intertwined in a way it is almost impossible to tell the difference between them. The jury is out on how many even want to able to tell the difference. That is probably the one reason why fan clubs exist and flourish in the south than in north. In fact in north it’s rare.
For people in Tamil Nadu and Andhra, movie states are gods and movies religion. In north, actors and movies perform just one simple function. That of entertainment. In the south the classic mantra of the louder the better is still very much the norm, particularly in Tamil Nadu. It is a state where people will kill just to be in the same room as their star. The fans want to meet their favourite stars, want to stand next to him, want to breathe the same air as they had and want a part of their body touched by them! There are people who don’t even bathe just because they want to savour their favourite stars touch.
So it’s very normal when plates fly, windowpanes break and the background music jars as actors yell and cuss and scream when the rich heroine’s father dares object to her alliance with the dashing but poverty stricken porukki get ups hero birds, bus and flowers run wild and the main players on center stage turn various shades of a beetroot red as the proverbial richie-rich damsel in distress romances her roadside Romeo. No prize for guessing the climax. Hero takes the law into his hand and kills the bad guys with. Yup! You have guessed it. Choppers! And to be fair, police will never come to arrest the hero wow – how moviey! And of course why this kind of parangwielding roles have been giving them box office hits, so why they change the formula? So these stars not fond of experiments an fresh storylines. We should blame the fans who are blind followers; meanwhile there is no shortage of fans who change their like and loyally with each release. There is no shortage of fans who break some rivals fan club banners and tear down posters, deface the posters with cow dung and throw stones at cinema halls showing their movie!
It’s not easy being an actor in Tamil Nadu! Even though they get all comforts and luxuries for fan clubs can be a double edged sword, with fan’s making unjust demands and nurturing unfair expectations of their heroes. The demands of the fan clubs often end up severely restricting the stars ability to experiment with a variety of roles. That’s why while Kamalahaasan can play the ride of a schizophrenic or a freedom fighter or a stuntman, Rajinikant is forced to play ‘Rajinikant’ in movie after movie after movie. Kamalahaasan’s fans expect to be surprised. Rajnikant’s fans want none. The flicking of the lighter, the stylized Rajni walk, tossing a cigarette up in the air and catching it in his mouth Rajni has to do this over and over again. Otherwise, his movies will be box office disasters.’
Many fans have to understand that the stars have their own life and we don’t have any rights to disturb them and their privacy. Most of the times I feel and see the fan as someone who is basically a loser, unemployed and with no hope in his or her life. And that’s why a person who is old enough to be this young hero’s father, accepts that hero as his thalaivar? Why? Why the reel hero should be anyone’s thalaivar? Is he the greatest actor on the planet? Or biggest social worker of the century? If that hero asked his fan to vote for Mr.X whom the fan professes to hate, would he? Of course, he would vote for Hitler or Bin Laden if his hero asked him to! Why? Of course because the hero is his thalaivar! What should I say? Height of stupidity or depth of idiocy? Why waste hard earned money on someone who is stinking rich? Why waste blood and sweat on someone who just takes you as granted?
Still once a fan, always a fan. And bloody proud of it too! Everyone makes a choice, whether they like it or not. For everyone has to belong to someone. No one knows quite how it all started. No one knows why they do it. Some won’t ever accept they do lit. But the fact is everyone in Tamil Nadu is a fan.
Why these fans don’t understand the simple fact all that glitters are not gold? Really? Yes, all that glitters are not gold but I had forgot simple fact that the gold will always glitters!
**********************
Roopa Swaminathan (Author of Star Dust book) is absolutely right. ‘A search for the words ‘fan club’ typed on the search engine Google on the internet comes up with over 61,000 hits and pretty much all of them have the following two words in them. Tamil Nadu. Think that’s an exaggeration? Is it really that far from the truth? Not really. Reality is that all 61,000 hits and more just might show up the words ‘Tamil Nadu’ in them except that not all the rasigar manrams are actually online.
Everything exists in a state of extended exaggeration in the state of Tamil Nadu. Not much separates the ‘real ‘world from the ‘real’; Movies, politics and ordinary life are inextricably intertwined in a way it is almost impossible to tell the difference between them. The jury is out on how many even want to able to tell the difference. That is probably the one reason why fan clubs exist and flourish in the south than in north. In fact in north it’s rare.
For people in Tamil Nadu and Andhra, movie states are gods and movies religion. In north, actors and movies perform just one simple function. That of entertainment. In the south the classic mantra of the louder the better is still very much the norm, particularly in Tamil Nadu. It is a state where people will kill just to be in the same room as their star. The fans want to meet their favourite stars, want to stand next to him, want to breathe the same air as they had and want a part of their body touched by them! There are people who don’t even bathe just because they want to savour their favourite stars touch.
So it’s very normal when plates fly, windowpanes break and the background music jars as actors yell and cuss and scream when the rich heroine’s father dares object to her alliance with the dashing but poverty stricken porukki get ups hero birds, bus and flowers run wild and the main players on center stage turn various shades of a beetroot red as the proverbial richie-rich damsel in distress romances her roadside Romeo. No prize for guessing the climax. Hero takes the law into his hand and kills the bad guys with. Yup! You have guessed it. Choppers! And to be fair, police will never come to arrest the hero wow – how moviey! And of course why this kind of parangwielding roles have been giving them box office hits, so why they change the formula? So these stars not fond of experiments an fresh storylines. We should blame the fans who are blind followers; meanwhile there is no shortage of fans who change their like and loyally with each release. There is no shortage of fans who break some rivals fan club banners and tear down posters, deface the posters with cow dung and throw stones at cinema halls showing their movie!
It’s not easy being an actor in Tamil Nadu! Even though they get all comforts and luxuries for fan clubs can be a double edged sword, with fan’s making unjust demands and nurturing unfair expectations of their heroes. The demands of the fan clubs often end up severely restricting the stars ability to experiment with a variety of roles. That’s why while Kamalahaasan can play the ride of a schizophrenic or a freedom fighter or a stuntman, Rajinikant is forced to play ‘Rajinikant’ in movie after movie after movie. Kamalahaasan’s fans expect to be surprised. Rajnikant’s fans want none. The flicking of the lighter, the stylized Rajni walk, tossing a cigarette up in the air and catching it in his mouth Rajni has to do this over and over again. Otherwise, his movies will be box office disasters.’
Many fans have to understand that the stars have their own life and we don’t have any rights to disturb them and their privacy. Most of the times I feel and see the fan as someone who is basically a loser, unemployed and with no hope in his or her life. And that’s why a person who is old enough to be this young hero’s father, accepts that hero as his thalaivar? Why? Why the reel hero should be anyone’s thalaivar? Is he the greatest actor on the planet? Or biggest social worker of the century? If that hero asked his fan to vote for Mr.X whom the fan professes to hate, would he? Of course, he would vote for Hitler or Bin Laden if his hero asked him to! Why? Of course because the hero is his thalaivar! What should I say? Height of stupidity or depth of idiocy? Why waste hard earned money on someone who is stinking rich? Why waste blood and sweat on someone who just takes you as granted?
Still once a fan, always a fan. And bloody proud of it too! Everyone makes a choice, whether they like it or not. For everyone has to belong to someone. No one knows quite how it all started. No one knows why they do it. Some won’t ever accept they do lit. But the fact is everyone in Tamil Nadu is a fan.
Why these fans don’t understand the simple fact all that glitters are not gold? Really? Yes, all that glitters are not gold but I had forgot simple fact that the gold will always glitters!
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