Types of Rajini Fans

From over 30 years of observing Rajini fans, I see that they can be (clumsily) classified as follows.

This is the first type of Rajini fan for you.

• Milk-Pourer: This is the guy (at the first few levels here, they are all guys) who climbs the tall banners (cut-outs, if you will) and does the abhishekam at 4 am on the release day of a movie.
• Association Member: This is the guy who is a member of fans association, and spends time/energy/money into this endeavor (of being a Rajini fan). For example: He will readily part his money to buy milk that gets poured by the milk-pourer. He will watch the FDFS come what may, even if it costs him tremendous amount of time/energy/money. He will write passionate blog posts, Tweets etc. not just around movie releases but whenever the man is in news. Folks like Rajini Ramki (famous blogger in Tamil circles), Vinodh Krishnamurthy (my friend) belong here.
• Serious Fan in a closet: This is the guy (a few times gals too) that spends a reasonable amount of time/energy/money but not something that would impact other parts of their life. I wrote a note on them here. Forget these multiplex and BookMyShow days — Even when one had to go to a theatre to get tickets, they would watch Rajini movies first day (may be evening) or definitely the first weekend.
• Generic Fan: This is the set of people (so we get into gender-neutral territory from here on) who like any masala movie and Rajini’s charisma makes it better for them. But if the movie is not good, they may skip it. Even if good, they will watch it only after a few weeks when the noisy crowd subsides.
• Kesavans: These are fans who are Rajini’s fans opportunistically and would switch camps depending on which side the wind blows. (If you already knew why this group has the name Kesavan, you belong to the first 3 categories. If not — See here and learn). You may think Kesavans are the worst kind but wait till you read the next two.
• North Indians: These are the people who live the North of Vindhyas and were the folks who were comparing Rajini to Mithun Chakraborty etc. in the 90s. Once they (basically their celebrities and their media) realized that there is more money to be made with Rajini’s name¹, this changed. Though Chuck Norris type jokes exist till now, it is with a grudging acceptance and a feeling of sour grapes. Founders of start-ups who declare holidays for employees on the release day of a Rajini movie to gain some PR mileage live here. People like MS Dhoni who thinks thala means brother, after being a CSK player for 10+ years also belong here⁵ (feel free to take a moment to do a face palm. I just did). You may again think this is the worst category but wait till you read the next.
• Wannabe North Indian: These are Tamils who are ashamed of being Tamils (they won’t agree but don’t judge them — they genuinely do not know this subconscious feeling in them) and somehow feel speaking in Hindi makes them better/superior. Once the North Indians started referring to Rajini as “thalaiva” (even in 3rd person, not as “thalaivar”, which is what one should say in 3rd person), as loyal imitators, this group also found a new love for Rajini and things Tamil. This is the group in Twitter etc. that gets most attention by mainstream media too. This is the group that supports CSK with hashtags like “Whistle Podu”³ . So as you have guessed now, this is the worst group IMO.⁴

While that is the clumsy-classification (TM) for you, if we do some analysis on where they come from (the social strata in particular.), how their lives have played out etc. it is a bit depressing. There are super-outliers and exceptions to what follows (like the aforementioned Rajini Ramki and Vinodh Krishnamurthy who have been super successful in their lives) but in broad strokes, this holds.

As we move from top to bottom in the list above, we see that it will roughly be people from lower strata of the society to the upper strata (friendly reminder on the exceptions just mentioned). The labour class to the bourgeois, if you will. Even among my extended set of friends and cousins (trust me, this list runs close to hundred), their own successes in lives have been in the order of how much of Rajini fan they have been. More the Rajini fan, less the success. No — I am not saying that being a bigger Rajini fan sets up one to fail. I am saying people who are likely to see lesser successes in life become bigger Rajini fans. See the nuance?⁶

Next, if we look at Rajini’s chances in upcoming elections, it might all boil down to how the bigger Rajini fans turn out. So far, he seems to be surrounded by the Kesavans, North Indians and Wannabe North Indians, which does not give a great vibe. His pronouncements also seem to be directed at pleasing them.

But then, who knows, closer to the election, he might be able to quickly sway his charisma and win everybody over. After all, that is what makes the man a phenomenon, ain’t it?

1. A particular moment I remember when North Indians realized this: Just before the release of Sivaji, one English news channel (IIRC, CNN-IBN) which was trying to attract South Indian base, ran a poll asking who was a bigger star: Rajini or Amitabh. And the results were like 90–10 in Rajini’s favor. Mind you², this was when one paid Rs.6 for premium SMS-es to telecom operators. To me, it was a huge surprise that a friend of mine, a Malayali (yes, you Anto) and a huge penny-pincher sent this SMS as a way to “show it to them North Indians”. (I had not, in case you wonder).
2. I specifically added ‘Mind you’ there as a way to remind you how North Indians would use ‘mind it’ as a way to insult South Indians.
3. A true Chennai guy would say “Whistle Adi” or “Oh Podu” as far as I can tell. Happy to be corrected though. This “Whistle Podu” seems to be a North Indian invention to me.
4. I am sorry to break this to you — A lot of you reading this might be in this section.
5. In fact Dhoni does not even mention Tamil Nadu, Chennai etc. at times, just “down south”, as if it is all part of Australia or Antarctica. Pity people who consider him as their own. Well, it is only that they want some of his successes to rub off on them so no point blaming him for this. It is not that he got his successes because of them.
6. This has turned out more controversial than what I wanted to. But WTH, let it be. This is based on my data, analysis, biases and stuff. If yours is different, I fully respect it.