‘Fan’tastic support for Pawan Kalyan’s new film

TheIndian film industry may have made giant strides, its entertainment value may have been recognised and appreciated all over the world, opening new markets for peddling our masala movies. A section of cineastes may even opine that the day is not far away when Indian cinema too is at last taken seriously for its variety, colour, music, hi-tech effects and engrossing storytelling. That is the spit-and-polish routine which has kept a certain section of the world hooked to Indian cinema for decades. However, most of the flicks that roll out of studios and production houses are unwatchable and barely innovative, having ended up choking the multiplexes and cinema halls for nearly 80 years, week after week. Into this milieu comes in the next Pawan Kalyan movie ‘OG’, which is obviously manna from heaven for his fans who have conveniently forgiven ‘Hari Hara Veera Mallu’ his recent and disastrous release. Planned to be a Navaratri bonanza, calculating the holiday mood of the audience, the film has cleverly been pumped up for maximum leverage at the box-office. All that is agreed as these are the methods which have acquired a high level of legitimacy in these last few decades, with fans having taller and taller cutouts of their heroes in the cinema halls, pouring milk from atop and showering flowers from helicopters as extreme publicity stunts.

Black marketing of the opening day show tickets and selling special show entry passes at a premium are part for the course for the fans. But a furious bidding for the first ticket priced at Rs 800 between a few of Pawan Kalyan’s hardcore supports made it a ridiculous one-upmanship exercise with the final bid amount touching nearly Rs 1.3 lakh, snapped up by a devoted fan, who announced it as his contribution to his hero’s political party, Jana Sena! The cinema-loving two Telugu states and its neighbour Tamil Nadu have always reserved a soft corner for their reel heroes, fantasizing about what they could do if they were real heroes taking on the corrupt netas of real-life political parties who have proven to be a terrible failure in improving their lot. That explains how despite a not-so-impressive start, heroes like Pawan Kalyan and his Tamil counterpart Vijay have stayed on for a long time in the industry, ably propped up and padded up by a band of well-wishers to keep running the race.

Vijay’s political party is already in the news for its terrific public support and how fans have braved the heat and dust to listen to what he is planning to offer as a panacea for their wretched livelihoods.

With fantasy effectively deluding many of his impressionable fans, Pawan Kalyan too has the luxury of doing what he can, now that he has the unstated backing of the Centre and enjoying a notable slot in the cabinet of Chandrababu Naidu’s government. For the fans, if the latest release fails, then there may be another one around the bend. It is a win-win for everyone, to keep the trash flying all over before the next lot of dumping takes place for the needful to happen, all over again.