India, May 10 -- South Indian fixation with cinematic actors as successful politicians has got yet another name, i.e., Chandrasekaran Joseph Vijay, or simply, Thalapathy (Commander) Vijay. Historically and culturally, movies have been a powerful medium to spread societal and political messages of justice, ethnic/regional pride, and anti-caste messaging that have stirred public imagination. Actors who played the screen protagonists became the face of those ideas and afforded themselves public reverence as veritable messiahs.

This phenomenon is particularly visible in Tamil and Telugu films with the likes of MG Ramachandran, Jayalalithaa, Karunanidhi, Vijayakant, etc., to the likes of NT Rama Rao, Chiranjeevi, Pawan Kalyan, etc., in the so...