Film stars and politics: A match made in heaven?

The past few weeks have seen the nation gripped by election fever. Befitting the largest electorate in the world with a record-breaking 64.2 crore voters, including 31.2 crore women, the 2024 Lok Sabha elections have been nothing short of a scintillating spectacle, with its final crescendo playing out over the past few days. On June 5, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) unanimously elected Narendra Modi as their leader, a day after the coalition won 293 seats in the elections that turned out to be as filled with drama, twists, turns and unexpected thrills as you’d expect from a movie. Thus, it should really come as no surprise that many of our top actors have been deeply involved in the elections — some victorious, a few losers.

Politics and showbiz are both widely acknowledged as two of the most cutthroat industries in the world to survive in and hence, it isn’t shocking to see many actors and actresses choosing to leverage their stardom in order to become political heavyweights. Right from Ronald Reagan, a famous American film actor who was later elected as the 40th US President to our very own J Jayalalithaa, the late former chief minister of Tamil Nadu, many individuals from the world of showbiz have enjoyed a hugely successful innings in the political arena.

Celebrity representation in Indian politics is by no means a new phenomenon. In the 1960s, Prithviraj Kapoor of the Kapoor Bollywood dynasty was the first Indian film star to enter Parliament as a nominated member to the Rajya Sabha. The Shahenshah of Bollywood, Amitabh Bachchan, contested the Lok Sabha elections in 1984 against the former Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh and won by one of the highest margins in general election history (by 68.2 per cent).

Though there are conflicting opinions on the merits of celebrities entering politics with inadequate participation being the fundamental criticism, political parties are also invested in celebrity-hood and are eager to use the influence that megastars have to their own advantage. The social and popular impact of these superstars are often extremely beneficial to political parties and political agendas.

In India, traditionally, this movement started in Tamil Nadu, with the film industry of the state, more than any other in the country, evolving closely with political and social developments in the region, since as early as the 1940s. The values and ideals of Tamil nationalism, a political movement that changed the course of history in Tamil Nadu, were strongly communicated and displayed through the medium of Tamil cinema. Often, stars associated with these films were found to be standing shoulder to shoulder with politicians at public rallies and meets at the time. Political parties then regularly commissioned advertisers to produce “star like” images of the actor turned politicians.

Full-length portraits, sometimes 100-ft high, were commissioned featuring M. Karunanidhi, a prolific screenwriter who later became chief minister, and of course Jayalalithaa, actress-turned-politician. This helped to transfer the captivating and somewhat unreal raw cinematic star power into substantive political idolatry. Though they were the first to start this phenomenon, today we see movie stars at the top of their game smoothly transitioning into leaders holding an elected office in government. Raj Babbar, Shatrughan Sinha and Jaya Prada are some names that come to mind when it comes to successful stars turned genuine politicians with illustrious political careers.

The 2024 Lok Sabha elections have given us a new cohort of our favourite screen idols ready to take on the responsibilities of governance, with several of the victors having contested on the BJP ticket. Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut is perhaps the most high-profile of them all, becoming a first time Parliamentarian contesting from her hometown of Mandi. “Dream Girl” Hema Malini just secured her third consecutive term representing the Mathura constituency, winning by a substantial margin of 5,10,064 votes against her opponent.

Manoj Tiwari, a stalwart of the Bhojpuri film industry won his Northeast Delhi seat for the third time. His colleague Ravi Kishen, another superstar in Bhojpuri cinema, also registered a win in Gorakhpur. Arun Govil, an actor most famous for playing Lord Ram in the hugely popular television show, also won from the Meerut constituency. Suresh Gopi, an actor, playback singer and television presenter, handed BJP their first victory in Kerala by winning the Thrissur constituency.

West Bengal, too, saw the highest number of regional film stars winning on Trinamool Congress’ ticket. Dev Adhikari, Bengali screen heartthrob, won the Ghatal constituency for the third time. June Malia won Medinipur, while Satabdi Roy won Birbhum for the third time.

Telugu movie star Pawan Kalyan of the Jana Sena Party (BJP ally) won the Pithapuram seat.

So, the question begs to be asked: Is this just an extension of celebrityhood without any meaningful relevance in the world of politics? Or, is this a phenomenon that translates into good governance?

Film stars are useful in commercial advertising and research has shown them to be particularly attractive candidates to first-time voters. In India, the latter forms a significant chunk of voting citizens, with 1.8 crore first-time voters on the electoral roll in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections. Young voters tend to idolise celebrities which results in fetching more votes for the political parties that the celebrities are affiliated to. Whether this results in better governance is a question with no clear answer.

Though we tend to take movie actors less seriously than career politicians, we have to remember that in a democracy, every person has the freedom to join politics. That said, once someone gets elected, the individual should devote sufficient time to do justice to the position to which they have been elected by the citizens of the country. We have lawyers, accountants, bureaucrats and even heirs from dynastic political parties joining politics, so why stop movie stars?

To quote Ronald Reagan, “Politics is just like show business. You have a hell of an opening, coast for a while and then have a hell of a close.”