Silver screen idol Kangana Ranaut is taking part in India’s election in her hometown, charming voters and opponents alike
In India, more than anywhere else, film and politics feed off one another. Bollywood (as the Mumbai-based Hindi film industry is called) celebrities have participated in India’s parliamentary elections. In 1957, the three reigning movie stars – Raj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar, and Dev Anand, all born in what is now Pakistan, campaigned at the request of the nation’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
Amitabh Bachchan, a seventies box office colossus, ran for parliament in 1984 at the behest of Nehru’s grandson, former PM Rajiv Gandhi. Running against opposition heavyweight H. L. Bahuguna, Bachchan won by one of the biggest margins ever.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has, over the past decade, enlisted various family members of Bachchan’s contemporary Dharmendra Deol to run for parliament: Deol himself, his second wife Hema Malini (who is currently seeking re-election in Mathura, Uttar Pradesh), and his son, Sunny Deol. Generally, movie stars do not contribute much to the legislature. However, when they campaign, they are a big draw among the mass of starstruck voters.
A dozen film celebrities are running for office in the current election; the most prominent is Kangana Ranaut, the BJP candidate in Mandi in the Himalayan state of Himachal Pradesh. She has linked her prospects to incumbent Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s bid for a third term. Voting in Mandi is on June 1, the last day of elections.
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Donning a traditional Himachali topi (cap) and a sari, Ranaut makes a fervent appeal to voters, mostly women, in the remote village of Jagatkhana in Kullu district, emphasizing her local origins at public rallies. ”You should vote for your own daughter from Mandi district, as only I can understand your pain and suffering and work to resolve your issues,” she says in Hindi.
Her humble background is her constant theme, given that her opponent, Congress candidate Vikramaditya Singh, is the scion of the royal family of the erstwhile princely state of Rampur Bushahr in Shimla district. His father was six-time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who is fondly remembered as ‘Raja Sahab’ by supporters; he was anointed ‘King’ posthumously.