| General Elections 2024: Now showing, a pan-India collaboration, featuring an ensemble cast Our interest in elections and the political process (or, shall I say, our desire for power? our innate need to be chosen?), I feel, starts from the moment we're made class monitor in school. That power — to write names of our less disciplined peers on the board and tell on someone — often went to one's head quickly even then. No wonder the country equivalent of it has always been viewed so keenly! But that's also a good sign, isn't it? The choice to elect our representatives is a sign of democracy and free speech. And the power that it ends up transferring as a byproduct to the chosen — is too often too hard to resist even for some of the most influential pop culture icons in the country, from film stars to cricketers. A whole cabinetful of celebrated yesteryear Bollywood stars, from Amitabh Bachchan and Rajinikanth to Hema Malini and the late Vinod Khanna, dabbled in politics. By the same token, political parties are only too happy to capitalise on the sway stars have over people in convincing them to buy toothbrushes to trucks, coaching classes to cement and fans to mobile phones. And so, the crossover continues. The 2024 elections are set to enjoy an ensemble cast of candidates. Kangana Ranaut will contest from Mandi in Himachal Pradesh. Hema Malini, incumbent MP from Mathura, will hope to extend her decade-long reign at the helm. In fact, Govinda, who had famously announced his departure from politics 16 years ago, might be fielded from an undisclosed-as-yet constituency in Mumbai. Shatrughan Sinha, who has ample experience of the field now, will contest from Asansol. The starry touch to the polls has had another favourable ripple effect. My younger colleagues at the office, who otherwise might not talk about politics the way my padosi Mr Ahluwalia's boys group does under every gazebo at the park — are suddenly taking an interest. And it's all because of the star power. For instance, rumours have also swirled around more contemporary actors, from Akshay Kumar to Sanjay Dutt, making their Poll-ywood debut sometime in the future. Thanks to our regional diversity, we've even been having friendly banter on which constituency or state would be best suited for our current A-listers. All this excitement bodes well, for, it is rather hard to get the younger generations away from their phones, sometimes. Our total and absolute immersion into our virtual lives and social media validation has the power to precipitate uninformed voting decisions, and affect all of us. If a top star can convince, or even get us thinking, about taking up flared jeans as part of a brand campaign, and another can help one pan masala brand trump all others — imagine the kind of momentum and enthusiasm the collaboration of politics and film stars could bring to our thinking. Because each vote counts |
