The most muscular of these creatures is the All India Rajinikanth Fans Association, a constellation of roughly 100,000 fan clubs that waits breathlessly to be told by Rajinikanth how to vote and waits even more anaerobically for the day when he will enter politics. (This year, in expansive, laissez-faire spirit, Rajinikanth asked fans to vote as they liked, but he has indicated nothing about his own electoral ambitions.)
The mandrams, moreover, are politicized as well as political. Last year, when Sathya Narayana resigned from his position as the president of Rajinikanth’s association, the news was reported with the barely restrained glee of film journalists who know the whole story but cannot tell. One website claimed that Narayana had been “rested”, the quotation marks vehemently inserted and quite at odds with Narayana’s plaintive statement that he was suffering from kidney failure.
Perhaps because of that controversy, Narayana’s replacement, a former classmate of Rajinikanth’s named V.M. Sudhakar, refused politely to talk to Lounge. “I am only here temporarily, and really, the head of our association is now Rajini sir himself,” he said. “You should just speak directly to him.” In the vast universe of feats that are easier said than done, “just” speaking directly to Rajinikanth is at the uppermost end of the scale, and Sudhakar knows that as well as anyone.
In a way, the nominal presidents of these associations enjoy a rare, heady brand of power: On the one hand, they have unparalleled access to the star, and on the other, they command the allegiance of the millions of fans under their purview. In another way, though, this power is severely circumscribed: Most presidents won’t make even the simplest move without first having it sanctioned by their hero. The hand that rocks the box office rules their world.
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KOVAI R THANGAVELU
Head, Kamal Hassan Narpani Iyakkam
In 1979, when Thangavelu and some of his college friends wanted to start an official Kamal Hassan rasigar mandram, they approached the actor for permission. “Kamal sir said that he didn’t want a mandram, but he suggested the idea of a service or welfare organization,” Thangavelu remembers.
Kovai R Thangavelu. Head, Kamal Hassan Narpani Iyakkam
So that same week, the group went to a slum in Coimbatore, where they lived, to clear ditches and pick up garbage. “We took photos of the entire process, and we showed them to Kamal sir,” Thangavelu says. “Only after that did he give us the permission to start the organization.”
Thangavelu still lives in Coimbatore, but once a month—“on the 28th, wherever in the world Kamal sir is at the time”—he comes to Chennai to set up a videoconference between the star and the iyakkam’s (organization’s) district-level presidents and secretaries. In south India, Thangavelu estimates, there are 15,000 fan clubs, with a total membership of 800,000. “And our president is Kamal sir,” Thangavelu insists. “I am just nominally in charge.”