Stars and Politics

  Are Politicians born or are they created? As I look back one thing that I notice is that a lot of politician  really choose to enter the arena at the  start  of    their careers and then climb up. This seemingly is their entire career.  They  seem to give up their other jobs for politics.  Their rise to top  is usually on the back of a major issue or even a catastrophe.  Hitler comes to mind who gave up an artist's life for a soldiers life but then even that career he gave up for a politicians life. He ended badly but he was very successful while he was and his prominence  was an outcome of Germany's problems after the first world war. He became larger than life but  sadly could not handle his power well leaving Germans in a worse pickle than before .
Some politicians come out of nowhere. One day they are not even on the horizon and suddenly next day they are all over. Usually they come in late in their careers or come in when their main career is over. A number of such people came up after the second world war riding their military exploits. Marshall Tito of now defunct Yugoslavia was one; Charles De Gaulle  of France was another. Later on Lech Walesa  of Poland; an electrician from a shipyard rose to prominence when the communist system collapsed. So these were big events that threw up strange people  from various walks of life to  the foreground.  Otherwise political power has been rotating among the few powerful and connected people. Kennedy ;Bush; Clinton ; Bhutto, Gandhi- Nehru are known to all.
One group that has successfully captured power silently  from time to time has been Film stars ; specially when power is  given by  voting citizens . Ronald Reagan  immediately comes to mind. A very ordinary actor became the governor of California and eventually President of the United States. Of course his film career was over by then but public associates stars with goodness and that does translate into a lot of votes . Advertisers are not fools to pay millions for star endorsement. Public does get swayed by  larger than life screen persona of a star. Recent addition to this galaxy is Arnold Schwarzenegger. Currently Governor of California. Unfortunately he was born in Austria  so he is barred from presidency otherwise Obama might  have considered  it better to be  still teaching constitutional law at Chicago.
India has seen her Share of the star politicians. M G Ramachandran a romantic hero became The Chief Minister so did J Jayalalitha a female star. Both in the southern state of Tamilnadu.  Rajnikanth and Chiranjeevi are also actively seeking a political role for themselves. Lots of others have dabbled in Politics from Raj babbar to Jaya prada; from Dharmendra to Vinod Khanna; with varying degrees of success or  should I say with varying degrees of failure. They do not have anything special to offer but their star value. Politics is a way for them to remain relevant when their film career is  finished. Political parties just use them as vote catchers. It would not be complete if I do not mention  Sunil Dutt; Govinda and Amitabh bacchan, arguably the biggest star ever . Sunil Dutt had an illustrious career in acting. He was as good a politician too. Generally considered very upright and well liked by his constituents.  He rose to be a  junior cabinet minister in the center and may have gone further  but for his demise. Govinda tried his hand  at  electoral politics since his film career was waning and then had to face the fact  that he is  inadequate  for both the jobs. Amitabh was drafted by his pal ex Prime minister  of India Rajiv Gandhi . After a while he realized he is better liked by people as an actor and being sensible he simply excused himself. A very smart move since his acting career seemingly is a never ending one.Although he still dabbles in politics from the side lines.
Another name that's   fast emerging is Shahrukh Khan. Considering his proclivity to extend his  patriotic mushy Film dialogues to public rally's and his penchant for generating  a buzz around himself; he is suited for a political role.  The way he  helped create a controversy by not bidding for any Pakistani player in IPL 3 and then blaming everyone else for not being "Indian" and "Hospitable" is typical of a politician, who are masters of shifting blame and projecting themselves as 'messiah'.  His fip flop of playing all sides  by berating Shiv sena then adopting conciliatory tones  and at the same time having media eat out of his hands  makes him a very  clear prospect. Worrying part is that as he is aging his movies have also begin to get jaded apart from the fact that in Ranbir Kapoor there is another  well connected industry  kid  who is  successfully gunning for the exact  ' romantic star' perch Shahrukh is on. Pray that his movies run otherwise we will have to tolerate another popular  star turned politician too full of himself.