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Photo: K.R. Deepak

In frenzy Dancing their way to ecstasy

Like Srinivas, there are millions across the state and the number keeps swelling with every passing year. Fan following is not a new concept - it had been present since decades. Earlier, it was an individual affair and today the profile has changed to give way to fan clubs and charitable trusts. Mahesh Babu alone seems to have over 2 lakh youths in his fan club in Visakhapatnam district alone.

Every actor in the Telugu filmdom has fan clubs spread across cities and districts. And with the advent of the World Wide Web, it has spread across countries. Actors like Chiranjeevi, Mahesh Babu, Nagarjuna and Venkatesh have fan clubs in the US.

Thanks to Internet and mobile phones, the fan clubs are well connected to each other. “We keep in touch with each other before and after the release of a movie.

On the first day of the release of a movie, the atmosphere builds up like a dynamic share market. We keep communicating with each other across the state, on a minute-to-minute basis, to know the crowd response and the sale of tickets. Even people from the US keep in touch with us over the Net,” says Raghava of Venkatesh Fan Club.

The fan clubs have an elected body and the committee members claim to be in touch with their idol. “Mahesh Babu calls up on a regular basis for feedback.

He also invites us for the muhurat shot of his every new film and keeps updating us on the progress of the film. We are the first to know about the release date of any new film. We also follow the film schedule very closely and meet him at locations for advice.

Apart from that, we meet him on important days like birthdays and anniversaries. For us, it is a privilege to spend a few moments with him,” says the president of Mahesh Babu Fan Club B. Apparao.

Idol worship goes a long way for such fans. They take vows for the success of the film and spend money without a second thought. The fan clubs are intimated at least a month before the release of any film. And during the month, they pool up money to the tune of Rs.15,000 to Rs.30,000, per city, to spend on cut outs, garlands, crackers and other things.

The entire money is spent on the day of the release. Many have run into debts and are in doldrums, thanks to the blind idol worship. There are also cases when the fan clubs collect money to run a film for a specific number of days at a stretch, just to create box office records or to compete with a rival club.

Inspired by their idols, most of the fan clubs have become extension wing of their hero’s philanthropic ideas. Chiranjeevi had started a charitable trust in Hyderabad to run a blood and eye bank and in tune with that the fans have taken up blood donation seriously throughout AP. “We are at beck and call for donating blood and we work 24X7. Someone, just needs to call one of us and we would arrange the blood,” says Suryanarayana of Chiranjeevi Fans Association.

A majority of the fan clubs undertake ‘Annadanam’ (poor feeding) or donate clothes to the poor on specific dates like birthdays and anniversaries of their idol. “We are also planning to launch a Mahesh Babu Charitable Trust in April.

The actor has evinced interest in starting a trust to take care of the health of the poor children,” informs Apparao.

Like the actor himself, the fans of Chiranjeevi are tight-lipped about the actor’s entry into fulltime politics. They only say, “We are ready for anything”.

A Chiranjeevi fan, now a prominent worker of another party says, “Switching of party is inevitable. We are only waiting for the date and the time. So far, we have sweated for another person now it’s time to sweat for our demigod.”

Well, if other actors follow suit, the fan clubs would soon turn to be major political hubs.

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