Tags: Bollywood , Politics

Lucknow: It seems the day is not far when Bollywood would give Indian politicians a run for their money. In a country where only two categories of people make headlines, (one is politician and other is a celeb) it is difficult to decide whether Bollywood enters politics to encash on their popularity or to add more feathers to their caps. Whatever the reason might be, Indian politics is emerging as another glamourous career option for Bollywood celebs. Politics is no more a resort for unlikely collection of retired stars, out-of-work actors, and some former beauty queens-turned struggling performers, some of the most successful actors of recent times are turning to politics for ‘service to the society'. Sanjay Dutt is yet another name who has joined the wagon.

Sanjay Dutt is going to contest LS polls as an SP representative from Lucknow seat. Such an announcement did not come as a surprise because he had already expressed his desire to join politics following his father's footsteps. His father Sunil Dutt was a Lok Sabha member from Congress party for two consecutive sessions.

Till now only Samajwadi Party has disclosed its contenders for the upcoming general elections, it remains a matter of curiosity as to who else can turn to Parliament leaving film city behind.

It is worth mentioning here that various political parties open such Pandora boxes just before the general elections to cash on their stars' popularity. Like it was done in the past LS polls, when Congress declared Govinda as a contestant from Mumbai. It was just before the elections that the party announced his candidature. Same was the case for TV actor Smriti Malhotra Irani. She was on a high with her daily soap ‘Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi' topping the TRP ratings. BJP thought of winning the household votes and banked on her ‘bahurani' image.

Another name that came as a surprise from SP is that of Actor Manoj Tewari. SP is eyeing on Bhojpuri votes with his candidature from Gorakhpur.

Bollywood's tryst with politics has been chequered so far. In the mid 1980's, Bollywood's biggest star Amitabh Bachchan fought the elections on a Congress party ticket from his northern hometown of Allahabad.
He won convincingly. He quit midway through his term in the parliament after realising that "that politics wasn't about emotion, it was a much bigger game and I possibly couldn't handle it".
Today there are many such stars who are ready to be a part of this ‘bigger game'. Amitabh Bachchan preferred to quit but his wife has made it to the Parliament and how! A Rajya Sabha member, Jaya Bachchan has a strong role to play as far as ‘close family friend' Samajwadi party is concered.
Jaya Prada is another name the party looks upto when it comes to its star MPs.
BJP is not far behind in the race. Having Hema Malini and Dharmendra as their key members, BJP depends on Bollywood celebs for its promotional campaigns more than the regular political faces. Vinod Khanna, Shatrughan Sinha and Nitish Bharadwaj also enrich party's kitty.
Rajesh Khanna, Shabana Azmi and Poonam Dhillon are a few more names that made to the Parliament.
Southern film industry is not far behind. Here the lines between politics and cinema have been traditionally blurred.
Southern cinema, particularly in Tamil Nadu, has been freely used as an instrument for propaganda for a party or caste-based ideology.
J Jayalalitha, was once a star actress and her mentor MG Ramachandran, who also ruled the state, was a stage actor turned movie star. When Mr Ramachandran died, two million people turned out for his funereal.
CM M Karunanidhi was a film scriptwriter. Actor NT Rama Rao ruled over the Andhra Pradesh state for a long time.
Chiranjeev is a new and hot name in the list. He has just joined politics and is making news for all the right reasons. His counterpart Rajnikant is not far behind.
With an array of stars joining politics, only time can tell that they will be catalyst to change the image of Indian politics or not!

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