Rajini gets taste of bitter politics after victim asks ‘who are you?’

Superstar Gets Trolled On Social Media


Pradeepkumar.V@timesgroup.com

Chennai:

K Santhosh Raj wasn't born when Rajinikanth's 1989 flick ‘Raja Chinna Roja’ was released. “Superstar-u yaaru-nu ketta, chinna kozhandaiyum sollum," (Even a child will answer the question who is superstar") goes the lyrics in a popular song in the movie.

On Wednesday, Santhosh posed this question not to any child, but to the actor's face. "Who are you?" asked the 21-year-old Tuticorin native, to which Rajini responded, "I am Rajinikanth!"

A video clip which caught this momentary exchange then went viral on social media unleashing trolling of a kind that Rajini had never witnessed before.

Within a few hours, twitterati created, and made a trend out of hashtags #Naan-ThanPaRajinikanth (I am Rajinikanth) and #AntiTamilRajinikanth. Some tweeted with wit while others used memes juxtaposing Santhosh's question with a scene from one of Rajini films. For instance, a picture of a bloodied Rajini walking out of his palatial residence in the 1995 flick ‘Muthu’ or the picture of Rajini living through his notorious gangster past in ‘Baashha’, parodied well with Santhosh's question.

Several users were not so kind. "Narikaalan," said a tweet from user @aekumaran, a wordplay on the name of Rajini's character in his upcoming ‘Kaala’.

Another user @NaranayaM tweeted, "If you who merely add salt to your food could be so arrogant, imagine how arrogant we who produce that salt could be."

Political analysts took a dim view of what they considered a PR fiasco for Rajini. "This is a big setback (for Rajini)," said analyst 'Tharasu' Shyam.

"He may have intended to call the fringe elements associated with the protest as anti-socials. But saying so, given the current atmosphere, would suggest that Rajini is calling the common people as anti-socials," Shyam said.

It was normal for Rajini to run into resistance at Tuticorin considering he had made no attempt to connect with the people in the run up to the violence, said political commentator M Kasinathan.

"There was no statement (from Rajini) on the protests for 100 days. At least, the Rajini Makkal Mandram members should have been in touch with the protesters. The incident shows that the coordination between leadership and the support is not at a satisfactory level," Kasinathan said.

Had Rajini not deviated from his political strategy, Wednesday's fiasco could have been avoided, Kasinathan added.