Akshay and Trinath, young fans of NTR were so miffed by a Pawan Kalyan fan Vinod Kumar’s words about their favourite matinée idol that it eventually led to a war of words. And then, the unthinkable happened. The unnecessary, actually. Vinod got killed.
From then on, a lot is being said and discussed about it. Pawan Kalyan went to meet the stabbed fan’s family and even publicly suggested that all of them should “focus on building their own lives rather than killing in the name of their fandom for a matinée idol”.
This incident is a reminder of how fan wars have become a huge cause of worry. It’s very often that we spot fans ready to take on the battle mode just for their star.
Let’s go back a bit into the history of how all this started. Back in the.50s, 60s and early 70s, ANR and NTR had emerged as the first ever stars with immense fan following followed by a rivalry between Sobhan Babu and Krishna. It was the norm to see the anti fans trying every trick they know to boo the film. The love for the stars was so much that it began a never seen before hero worship in the industry. Camps were divided. And it was very often that fans in cine hubs like Vijayawada and Vizag among other centers were spotted having heated arguments about who is a bigger star and whose film ran longer. But this was just a seed sown, the monster was yet to emerge.
The makers did cash in on this craze as well but never was the stupidity of today seen.
With passing time, fandom has taken more of a politics-based, caste-based and region-based colour. Today, it is assumed by default (and it’s mostly true) that a Kapu prides in the Mega clan while the Nandamuri family is a favourite of the Kammas.
Very relevant to today’s times and a memorable instance would be the “anti” pages run by fans of Chiranjeevi and Balakrishna which spewed hatred and were later taken down. Same was the situation with pages on Orkut and Facebook as well. The main aim of fan pages is waiting for a rival star’s film to create trolls. The best example of this would be the recent episode of Sardaar Gabbar Singh and Brahmotsavam releases when memes seemed to be coming in by the dozens the moment the film hit the theatres. Social media has given wings to this monster of fandom helping it take a disastrous turn.
You’d probably not be surprised to know that since Vinod died, Pawan’s fans have been targetting NTR’s fans. And sadly, no one is talking about how Vinod’s death could have been a part of the stupid plot to spread negativity against Janatha Garage a week ahead of its release.
In our counterpart Tamil cine world, a similar war is seen. While it was Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan even a decade ago, today the war between Ajitha and Vijay fans is something short of a legend. Will there be an end to this? Likely not because our problems aren’t just about fans… It’s a lot deeper. Painted with caste, politics, region and religion, it’s not easy to rub this away anytime soon.
So what next, you might wonder. Just wait for the next generation of heroes and experience this taking a new leap, mostly.
