Surprised by the frenzy among the Rajnikant fans across the country over Kabali, his latest film which is to be released shortly, the Government of Puducherry has come out with an innovative idea to exploit the same to market the Swachchh Bharat campaign launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The newly elected Government of Puducherry has offered free Kabali tickets to residents of Sellipet Panchayath if they construct toilets in their homes. “We found that out of the 772 households in Sellipet Panchayath, 447 did not have toilets. This meant almost 58 per cent of the residents were defecating in the open,” said A Namassivayam, Minister for public works including public health, Government of Puducherry. He said Rajnikanth has a vast following in the Union Territory and this is what the Government was trying to exploit.
Namassivayam said the Government has drawn up a Rs 120 crore scheme to build toilets for 55,000 households and the Kabali free ticket is an attempt to draw more people towards the project. “This is an irresistible offer for the ardent Rajni fans,” he said. Kiran Bedi, the lieutenant Governor of the UT, tweeted on Friday that the Kabali free ticket for toilet is working.
In addition to the “free Kabali ticket for building toilet”, for the first time in the history of cinema, a private airliner has dedicated a special aircraft as a mark of recognition to Rajnikant. With weeks left for the release of Kabali, the film in which he plays the role of an aging don, Tamil Nadu is in a grip of Kabali fever. The airliner, which has the tag of the “official airliner of Kabali” took permission of the civil aviation authorities and pasted the giant aircraft with larger than life posters of Rajnikant as Kabali.
“This aircraft has been painted and stickered with the pictures of Rajnikant as Kabali. We have unveiled our new rebranded aircraft with a livery dedicated to the most awaited movie of the year, Kabali,” the airlines said in a media release.
The Kabali fever does not end with the aircraft being adored with Rajni’s pictures. “The airliner, which inter connects most of the air destinations in India has even introduced a special flight from Bangalore to Chennai for Rajni fans to watch the first-day-first-show of the movie,” said the release.
Kalaipuli Thanu, producer of the movie, said this was the first time in the history of Indian cinema that an airline has dedicated an aircraft to a movie. “Rajnikant’s fame has broker barricades of age and geography,” he said.
There are certain factors which make Kabali unique, pointed out Mahalakshmi Bharadwaj, noted choreographer and danseuse. “Rajnikant usually gives dates to big-time directors like Ravikumar and Shankar. This is the first time he has chosen to act in a movie to be directed by a relatively new comer, Pa Ranjith, who has just two movies to his credit. This has surprised the industry," Mahalakshmi told The Pioneer.
She also pointed out that Rajnikanth is acting in the lead role without a pair. “I understand he decided to act in the move because he was impressed by the script. These factors have made Kabali the biggest event of Indian film industry in 2016,” said Mahalakshmi.
The entire film industry in Chennai is keeping their fingers crossed to the question that whether Rajnikant has become conscious of his age and has chosen to play a character in synchronisation with it. “with Rajnikant, you can’t tell anything. I will not be surprised if he plays the role of a young man bashing up the bad guys and walks away with the heart of the heroine,” said Sundar Das, a leading film critic in Chennai.
One more feather on Kabali’s crown is the decision of the management of le Grand Rex, Paris, Europe’s largest cinema theatre, to premier the film. According to critics, this is the first ever Tamil movie to be premiered in this elite auditorium, yet another global recognition for Rajnikant.