Chiranjeevi
Credit: PTI Photo
BJP led Narendra Modi government announcing Padma Vibhushan- India’s second highest civilian award to Tollywood’s own and original Megastar Chiranjeevi confirms the saffron party’s tryst with cinema and entertainment industry to gain some foothold in the Telugu states as part of its ‘Look south’ policy.
In 2022 popular pan India director SS Rajamouli’s father, a storywriter, V Vijayendra Prasad was nominated to Rajya Sabha by BJP.
In an illustrious film career spanning more than four decades, Chiranjeevi who is fondly called as Chiru by his admirers and millions of fans has starred in over 150 feature films in Telugu, as well as some films in Hindi, Tamil and Kannada. In 2006, he was honoured with the Padma Bhushan.
While Chiranjeevi’s younger brother Pawan Kalyan’s Jana Sena is an ally of BJP, the Megastar had to cut short his political career as he merged his Praja Rajyam party in Congress in 2011.
After Praja Rajyam’s merger, Congress sent Chiranjeevi to Rajya Sabha and made him union tourism minister in prime minister Manmohan Singh’s cabinet during UPA II.
In the last few years, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been giving utmost importance to Chiranjeevi. He was among the very few Tollywood celebrities to receive an invite to attend the recent consecration at lord Sri Ram temple in Ayodhya.
Besides having a huge fan base and very popular in both the Telugu states, Chiru hails from numerically strong Kapu, community in Andhra Pradesh.
Two years ago the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) conferred the Indian Film Personality of the Year on Chiranjeevi. Parallels are also being drawn with similar conferment of Padma Visbhushan to Tamil superstar Rajnikanth in 2016.
“I’m sure there is a motive behind conferring Padma Vibhushan to Chiraanjeevi. It's not that he doesn’t deserve such an honour. But there are many others who deserve this honour but why only Chiranjeevi , a chosen one, is the key point. Everyone knows how calculative our Prime Minister Narendra Modi is in making such moves. Though it’s too early to say how BJP would derive gain from Chiranjeevi for now, it's very clear that there is a clear political motive behind it. They tried a similar template in Tamil Nadu too by conferring Padma Vibhushan to Rajnikanth hoping that the Tamil superstar would help them in the Dravidian state. However, that was a failed attempt or experiment. It would now be keenly watched if Chiranjeevi’s experiment will fetch any dividends to BJP in both the Telugu states especially in Andhra Pradesh,” political analyst and Navyandhra Intellectual Forum chairman, Prof DAR Subramanyam told DH.
In July, 2022 everyone was surprised when Chiranjeevi received a special invite to attend the unveiling of legendary freedom fighter Alluri Sitarama Raju’s bronze statue in Bhimavaram by prime minister Modi.
Chiranjeevi received a personal invitation to attend the meeting from Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy.
Chiranjeevi shared dais with Modi and chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. The visible bonhomie between Chiranjeevi and Modi on the dais caught everyone’s attention. Modi was seen holding Chiranjeevi on his shoulders, cracking jokes and laughing.