Tamil superstar Rajinikanth who is on the verge of entering politics, on Tuesday, made it crystal clear that he has not described the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as a “dangerous” political organisation and it is for the people of the country to decide whether it is such a party.
A day before, when he was asked that whether the saffron party was such a dangerous party that opposition parties were combining against it, Rajinikanth had said, reported news agency IANS, “If they (non-BJP parties) have said it like this, then it must be definitely correct.”
Interestingly, a day after, Thalaivar said that his comments were interpreted differently. He also refused to give his personal opinion on whether the BJP was a “dangerous party” as he had still not entered politics.
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“I have not described BJP as a dangerous party. I only said yesterday that if opposition parties are coming together against BJP, then it (BJP) must be dangerous to them. It is for the people to decide who is dangerous. I will not give my views because I have still not entered politics. It is for the people to decide (about BJP). But the fact that 10 parties are uniting against one party (BJP), then it shows who is strong,” he said, reported the news agency.
It was a flip-flop on Rajinikanth’s end or “media interpreted him different”… well, the actor must be knowing better but the episode definitely created political controversy with AIADMK saying that people would decide who is strong and weak during polls as they are the reviewing authorities.
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However, the entire episode made me think that why the actor made such statements.
Is it because Rajinikanth’s ‘Petta’ movie is all set to release in Pongal 2019? The festival is on 15 January, to be precise. It is a well-known fact that controversies related to actors and actresses before the release of their films help them in attracting a bigger audience and hence profit.
The move is a Tamil action drama. Via a special poster, Sun Pictures took to Twitter to make the announcement. The flick features Rajinikanth and Simran. The movie is directed by Karthik Subbaraj. It also stars Mega Akash, Bobby Simhaa, Vijay Sethupathi, Sasikumar and Trisha.
There are also rumours that the film marks the southern debut of actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who is reportedly playing Rajinikanth’s friend role.
It may be recalled that in October Rajinikanth tweeted that the shoot of “Petta” was wrapped up 15 days ahead of schedule.
Well, what I personally believe is that Rajinikanth is a big actor he does not need controversies to run his films.
And…on a closing note, politics is a very sensitive ground where your words play a major role. So whatever a politician or an aspiring politician says, it should be explicit without any scope for interpretation.
About the author: Author is Deputy Editor in India TV and tweets at@AnuragSason
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Anurag Sason 