India offers Arnie a pointer or
two By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - As Arnold Schwarzenegger embarks on
his new career as governor of California, he could do
well to study India, where more film stars strut their
political stuff than perhaps anywhere else in the world.
This is no surprise really, as the American
equivalent of Hollywood, Bollywood, employs more than
2.5 million people and churns out over 800 films every
year, compared to Hollywood's 200.
If Arnold
were to model himself on someone from India, there are
plenty of examples to follow.
First, though,
let's look at how Indian politicians milk the most
benefit from Bollywood - all the world's a stage, after
all. The majority of stars and starlets make their most
politically potent presence before any elections, as
politicians of every hue woo them to draw the crowds
desperate to see their idols in the flesh. Some of the
stars turn up because they actually do have political
affiliations; others simply want to repay a personal
favor; some do it for the "appearance" fee that they
demand. And some just love to be in the limelight.
Schwarzenegger, of course, is on the other side
of the fence now - he certainly doesn't need the money
or the fame, which he has in abundance. What he might
need, though, is a bit of guidance on how a former film
star copes with the hurly-burly of politics, where
everything doesn't always go according to the script.
For a start, he could study the union (central)
government, which boasts two superstars of yester-year,
but they might not be such good examples as their
performance in the corridors of power have not been as
spectacular as their thespian careers.
Anyway,
Schwarzenegger could look at dashing Vinod Khanna, the
minister of state for external affairs. Khanna limits
himself to handsome photo-ops at glitzy diplomatic
events; there are reports that suggest that he has been
asked to keep his mouth shut on more vexed matters, such
as India-Pakistan diplomacy.
Or Arnold could
take a leaf out of Shatrughan Sinha's book, the union
minister of shipping, and spend his time making sequels
of the Terminator series. Sinha did not have a very
happy innings in the critical portfolio of health
minister, so he was shunted to the not as vital shipping
ministry, after being blamed (by the media - who else? )
to be too busy in theater to be taking care of the
country's abysmal health care facilities.
Sinha
and Khanna are just two of an army of actors and
actresses who have thrown themselves into the difficult
world of Indian politics, with varying degrees of
success.
Amitabh Bachchan, for instance, once
the biggest superstar of Hindi films, had a short and
unsuccessful stint in parliament before retreating to
the familiar world of acting. "Politics was a mistake,"
says the now wizened Bachchan, until recently saddled by
numerous litigations, several at the instigation of his
political opponents.
Arnold might aim a bit
higher, as it were, and play God himself, a step up from
his robot series. For this, he could study Indian state
politics, where two film stars have risen to the helm as
chief ministers - the equivalent of a US governor. The
two southern states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu had
their biggest pin-ups - N T Rama Rao and M G
Ramachandran (popularly referred to as MGR), a
non-muscular version of Arnold who had a sword fight
with a one-armed woman - occupy the political canvas in
the 1970s and 1980s.
NTR and MGR did extremely
well in buttressing their screen image to further their
political ends. NTR played God in several of his movies,
produced at his own studios, and built temples for
people to worship him, and he played a similar role as a
higher being while in office. MGR, meanwhile, portrayed
the role of the savior of Tamil pride perfectly whenever
his political stakes were down. The tactic worked a
charm.
Schwarzenegger could also learn that in
politics, the spicier the better. The current chief
minister of Tamil Nadu, J Jayalalitha, was the top
actress of her time, and she also happened to be a
mistress of MGR. She fought a bitter political battle of
legacy with MGR's widow, who was herself chief minister
for a short while before Jayalalitha took over.
For further micro studies, Arnold could brush up
on the political history of several other stars -
Shabana Azmi, Dilip Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, Vyajantimala
Bali and Raj Babbar, to name a few.
Due to their
larger-than-life presence, plenty of literature delves
into the role of film stars in politics. Arnold could
study this as well. What emerges from this knowledge
bank is that when people in the past voted for stars,
they did so for style rather than substance, for image
rather than reality.
However, the Indian
electorate has evolved. It has come to realize that it
is the person who delivers that matters. The mantle of
NTRs party has been taken over by his technocrat
son-in-law Chandrababu Naidu, who dreams of modeling his
state on Singapore by making it the hub of India's
information technology boom.
Jayalalitha was
voted back into power not because of her star status,
but due to the ineptitude of the previous government, as
well as her reputation as an iron-fisted leader.
Actors, like anybody else, have the right to
stand for elections, and like anybody else they need to
perform or they will be shunted out. No doubt they have
an initial advantage, but honeymoons have a horrible
habit of ending all too soon.
Schwarzenegger has
played many roles as a tough guy in his time, but
perhaps it is his role as the caring and sensitive
family man in the comedy Jingle all the Way that
he will need to emulate if he is to be a successful
governor. That's the True Lies.
Siddharth Srivastava is a New Delhi
based journalist.
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Oct 10, 2003
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