Fans take centre stage

Oh! It’s some silly stuff that people do in Tamil Nadu and other states. Such things won’t thrive in Kerala!
A decade ago, this was the stock reply of Malayalis when they were asked about the trend of giving movie stars a demi-god status. Well, time changes things drastically! Today, we live in an age when fans in Kerala rip each other’s heads off on social media fighting over super stars, do blood donations under the banner of fans associations and take pride in being office bearers of such groups.And thanks to their interesting lives, movies too are being made about fans now! Alongside the already released Kattappanayile Rithwik Roshan and Sunny Wayne-starrer Pokkiri Simon, Manju Warrier movie Mohanlal, and newbie director Arjun Prabhakaran’s Shibu, are among upcoming films based on the lives of fans. What's so special about a fan's life? We explore:
A life like no other
Kattappanayile Rithwik Roshan fame Vishnu Unnikrishnan says the lives of fans have many elements that are fun to watch. “For instance, there is a scene in our film, in which Siddique’s fan character travels by hanging on to the ladder behind a bus, imitating his hero Jayan. It’s something we borrowed from the life of a real fan.”
The ways through which a fan gains a social standing are vastly different from that of others, says Pokkiri Simon’s scribe K Ambadi IAS. “I personally know fans who have been waiting for years to get a photo with the actor they admire. Such a photo means everything to them, and so you can’t even term such an ambition silly. Movie lines creep into even serious conversations of theirs, and some of such real life instances were included in our movie. Their lives are indeed stranger than fiction and their stories worthy of being told. As Tamil actor Vijay's father S A Chandrasekhar had told me once, ‘We used to watch Malayalam cinema to get a realistic portrayal of life, while we worshipped superheroes. Now, it's vice versa’.”
Mohanlal director Sajid Yahiya adds, “In Tamil Nadu, there have been competitions based on the height of the cut-outs of superstars, paalabhishekam etc. We didn't have any of these in the past. But now, as the number of theatres went up, technology improved and movies which can execute superheroism came into being, fandom also changed. Their stories are really entertaining.”
Shibu, the upcoming film by Arjun Prabhakaran, is about a Dileep fan. The director says, “Being a star’s fan, the protagonist of our film is a relatable youngster of today. Even in the online space, you can see youngsters openly expressing their admiration for their icon. We assume it’s a negative trend but it is not always so.”
Banking on the power of fans
Unlike in other parts of the world, fan behaviour has taken on a very curious shape in India, opines critic C S Venkateswaran. “It grows into massive organisations and even political parties here. We have seen it happening in the case of those like MGR, Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth, NTR, Chiranjeevi and Vijaykanth. They converted star power into political power. The line between the admiration for a star and for their political leanings is thin. It’s a very interesting sociological phenomenon in India. You identify with a star and then the star begins to assume extra power, influencing you in manifold ways. We need to understand how that happens,” he says.
Aren’t the makers of the fan-based movies trying to tap into the fans associations of stars for the success of films? According to Jaison Jose, a student cum film buff, it’s one of the primary reasons for the emergence of such stories. “You can see Lalettan fans and Mammootty fans going gaga over the mere mention of anything related to them, in any movie. In such a scenario, imagine how it would be when your story is entirely about the fan of a star.
Regardless of the cast of the film, it will get the fans' association’s support and that will help the movie immensely. And if the film is entertaining on the whole, nobody has complaints,” he says.
Venkateswaran, however, says that tapping into the fan base of an actor is tricky because it’s actually difficult to understand what fans really want. “Fans are very touchy and if something in the film doesn’t work out, it can work against it.” Ambadi also agrees with him, saying, “It’s a double-edged sword. The topic in itself invites extreme reactions, I realised through Pokkiri Simon. It garners a lot of support from the fans of the actor we talk about in our film but humongous hatred from rival groups who think on the lines of ‘Oh, is it so? Let’s show them whose fans are the real powerhouses. They don't strike a middle ground. You check the comments on a teaser or something of such a movie on social media and it would be clear. So there is a big risk as well," he concludes.