Onscreen Lord Ram,
Arun Govil
, is among the stars who have taken the poll plunge in this
Lok Sabha elections
. BJP has fielded Govil from Meerut, which is also his hometown.
However, he is not the first ‘epic’ icon to enter real-life politics. At least half a dozen stars from the blockbuster serials
Ramayan
and
Mahabharat
have been to the Lok Sabha or the Rajya Sabha in the past.
The list includes Sita (
Dipika Chikhliya
), Hanuman (Dara Singh) and Ravan (Arvind Trivedi) from Ramayan, and Raja Bharat (
Raj Babbar
) and Draupadi (Rupa Ganguly) from Mahabharat. Except for Ganguly and Gajendra Chauhan (Yudhishthir), the five others tasted victory in their maiden effort. Most of them were fielded by the BJP and won.
The party also sent some of them (Dara Singh and Rupa Ganguly) to the Rajya Sabha. Giving reasons for TV stars entering the poll arena, Chikhlia says: “I think we all received the love of the people in the form of votes. I took to politics to reach out to a committed section of people.” A closer look at the journey of these TV icons indicates that while most of them had a short stint in politics, only Raj Babbar evolved as a seasoned politician.
Sharing the reason for his longer political innings, Babbar says: “Be it epic stars, cine artists or any other celebrity, the reason behind their acceptability is the power of recall and recognition that makes it easier for them to connect with people. That is probably what helped most of us.” On why many stars went back to their world after their political sojourn, Babbar says: “Nothing in this world comes free.
The greater acceptability comes with equal responsibility. An actor is expected to strike a balance between personal, professional and public life. This may not be easy for all due to the uniqueness of their circumstances and may compel some to make a choice. It is quite normal for people to pick their established realms.” Political commentators and social analysts admit that actors have done well in poll arena.
“Relatability is a great factor that works in favour of such candidates. Many of them are successful star campaigners and crowd pullers which serve the purpose of the party,” says Prof Sushil Pandey, faculty at BBAU, Lucknow. Prof Vinod Chandra, sociologist and principal of Shri Jai Narayan Mishra PG College, Lucknow, says actors go back to their profession because they realise that the ‘reel’ and ‘real’ world challenges are different.
English (US) ·