With the successful entry of Vijayakanth into Tamil Nadu politics and the hype surrounding Chiranjeevi's Prajarajyam in Andhra Pradesh, excited Rajni fans in Coimbatore adopted a novel method to drag their leader, Super Star Rajnikanth into Tamil Nadu politics.
The fans, belonging to 'Rajni Narpani Manram' floated a party -- Desiya Dravida Makkal Munnetra Kazhagam (DDMMK) -- and even released a flag for the party. The flag had red, white and black colours with Rajnikanth's face imbibed a shining star. The fans pasted posters all over and announced that the party would be named later Rajnirajyam (sic) a la Chiranjeevi's Prajarajyam.
But the overzealous fans had little idea what was in store for them.
Late Monday evening, he issued a signed-statement -- in Tamil -- stopping his fans from using his name and pictures to mislead the public. He even requested the "friends in the media" not to use the news and statements given by those from his fan clubs regarding his entry into politics. The message was clear: he is not joining politics. At least for now.
He also threatened to remove those who use his name and portraits without his permission from the primary membership of the fan club. He also warned them of legal action if they continued to do so, defying his request.
He told his fans who are interested in politics to work with any political party of their liking.
"My fans who are into active politics can support and vote for any party that they like in the coming Lok Sabha elections. I do not wish to influence them in anyway. I can understand the desire of my fans when film stars are floating political parties in Tamil Nadu and neighbouring states. But I am busy with my film Enthiram right now which is being made in a grand scale."
In his typical style, reminiscent of some of his one-liners from his films, his statement said, "No one can force me to enter politics. Similarly, no one can stop me from entering politics."
Will he ever? That is a million-dollar question.
Read Rajni's statement in Tamil