Tinseltown joins political chorus

NEW DELHI: Star stock had plummeted in 1977 after many mega stars turned out for Congress but failed to prevent its maiden defeat in national elections.
Dev Anand and G P Sippy launched a filmy political outfit, National Party, in 1980 and it disappeared.
After that individual stars, known for their political affiliations, like Sunil Dutt, Shatrughan Sinha, Rajesh Khanna, Shabana Azmi, Raj Babbar and Vinod Khanna have made it to Parliament, but Bollywood had never gate-crashed into mainline parties as they have done this time.
Of course, the unkind might say that most of the celebs staging political entries are either has-beens or wannabes. Apart from Amitabh Bachchan, can you think of one Bollywood superstar in his prime making the leap?
On the other hand, South India, long derided for celluloid overlay to its politics, must be grinning from ear-to-ear. It can justifiably claim - after IT - to have set the trend for North to follow.
True, no star here has made it to the front row of the political matinee show. But who knows what new twist lies in the script.