The influence of Tamil cinema
over politics is a thing that is not going out of trend for some time in
the future. As it has been evident with MGR using his acting skills and
the star power he had to change the face of politics back in 1977.
Following him, Tamilnadu has seen a flood of people entering politics
with cinema background with a mix of successes and failures.

Dr
Kamal Haasan a renowned actor/writer started his journey into politics
rather subtlety. He tweets over the actions of ruling party MLA’s
sparked controversy and made him viral on the internet. This was partly
because of his feud with the Tamilnadu government over the release of
his film Viswaroopam. During the period of hospitalisation of Ms J.
Jayalalitha, he grew bold and criticised the secrecy in revealing the
status of Jayalalitha’s health and then commented on the resort
situation in Koovathur all of which gathered momentum to his becoming a
full-time politician.

Not to be like
Rajnikanth, Kamal Haasan started his party right away using the
opportunity of the conflict in the TN politics than to lure in undecided
voters and party members. He has been true to his word saying alliances
with corrupt parties with him contesting alone both in Lok Sabha polls
and in the by polls.

Based
on his campaign and strategies he can be given 60 to 70 % for his new
campaign ads being different and his candidates being locally acclaimed
people pleasers. But he fails in using the age-old campaign methods of
talking to people from a van and using the same pure Tamil vocabulary
just like countless others before him.

Makkal
Needhi Maiam President Kamal Haasan too uses his stardom just like MGR,
Vijayakanth and Jayalalitha to set the stage but he knows that it is not
enough to gather votes. Thus he hasn’t contested yet knowing that a
defeat will shorten the trust in him by the people. The Lok Sabha and by
poll results will decide the direction of the party’s and his journey.