Actor Vikram's daughter to marry Karunanidhi's grandson
What's the story
Tamil Nadu is poised to witness another starry alliance with actor Cheeyan Vikram's daughter Akshita getting engaged to Manu Ranjith, the great grandson of DMK supremo M Karunanidhi. The engagement will take place on 10 July and will be a close-knit affair. A grand wedding will take place in 2017. In Tamil Nadu, several politicians began as actors and films are huge political mediums.
Politics and films in Tamil Nadu
DMK leaders and their popularity through movies
In the post-colonial period, with the reach of electricity in 1950s the DMK party began using movies as a major political organ. DMK chief C. N. Annadurai was a successful scriptwriter who wrote about the upliftment of the masses. Karunanidhi started propaganda with Parasakthi and like Annadurai drew masses through the films.
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2 CMs who converted fans into vote banks
Thanks to the popularity amassed through penning Tamil films, Annadurai won the 1967 Tamil Nadu state elections for the DMK and Karunanidhi took his place after his death in 1969.
M.G.R's popularity
MGR- the hero that shook Tamil politics
M. G. Ramachandran (popularly known as MGR) was probably the most successful of all the Tamil stars. He was the DMK treasurer but split from Karunanidhi to form his own party All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) with the support of his fans. MGR never lost an election and continued to win hearts even ten years after he left the movies.
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MGR- the hero of the masses
MGR's movies had references to Dravida and MGR would wear red and black (the DMK flag colors). He played the protagonist who represented the party ideology, and would fight against evil and support the poor.
Jayalalitha's filmy journey
Jayalalitha: From heroine to CM
Tamil Nadu's CM Jayalalitha too entered the political world through films. She was one of the leading ladies to have been paired with MGR. She was inducted into AIADMK by MGR himself. After MGR's death, Jayalalitha held the reins of AIADMK. However, unlike her predecessor MGR she did not inherit the telepathic connect with the masses through her movies but through her political persona.