As Vijay pushes ahead with his political ambitions in Tamil Nadu, he has one thing in common with Pawan Kalyan, a fellow South Indian superstar who has had the most success in the field recently – they have both entered politics in the prime of their film career, enjoying the support of millions of fans.

While ‘Power Star (Pawan Kalyan)’ floated his JanaSena Party (JSP) in 2014 and was part of the coalition that won this year’s Assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh, ‘Thalapathy (Vijay)’ has only recently launched his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam.

The two have taken vastly different roads to politics, though – Kalyan, the Andhra Deputy Chief Minister now, has positioned himself as the defender of Sanatana Dharma; while Vijay has announced his party’s ideology as “secular social justice”.

While Kalyan is seen as projecting himself as an alternative to ally BJP, in Tamil Nadu, Vijay’s stand mirrors the state’s Dravidian heavyweights in the AIADMK and DMK, and their legacy.

However, there is something Vijay can learn from Kalyan’s political journey, given how the latter has bounced back after being trounced in the 2019 Andhra polls, and that is his successful conversion of his fan base into voters.

It’s not as easy as this sounds, as other movie stars before Kalyan have realised. Take for example Kalyan’s own brother, megastar Chiranjeevi. He launched his Praja Rajyam Party in 2008 to the roaring support of teeming fans. But the party won just 18 seats in the first Assembly polls it contested, out of total 294 in the state then, and within three years, merged with the Congress.

Another example is Kamal Haasan, who launched his political party, Makkal Needhi Maiam, in 2018. The party has not seen electoral success still, despite associating itself with the ruling DMK coalition in Tamil Nadu now.

Neither Chiranjeevi nor Kamal Haasan could do what yesteryear stars M G Ramachandran (MGR) achieved in 1972, and N T Rama Rao (NTR) later in 1982. Having founded the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in opposition to the Congress government in the then united Andhra, NTR captured power in the state in 1983, within a year of entering politics.

In 1977, MGR had pulled off an almost similar political debut, leading the AIADMK to power five years after he joined politics.

The success of both was the result of their ability to convert fan clubs into political units, and to get voters to believe in the political ideology of their parties.

In the case of Kalyan, what has helped is the political alliances he has formed, first with the TDP and BJP separately, and then playing a role in getting the two to come back together on the same platform.

JSP insiders say Kalyan also showed shrewdness in his willingness to make “sacrifices” in seat-sharing to make this come about. In the recent elections, for example, he contested just 21 of the 175 seats in the state’s Assembly and two of the 25 Lok Sabha constituencies. More importantly, all his party’s candidates won.

Where could Vijay be looking for friends come the next Assembly elections in Tamil Nadu, in 2026? He dropped some hints at his party’s first state-level conference last month, calling the BJP his “ideological enemy” and the DMK his “political enemy”.

This has led to speculation that Vijay could form an alliance with the Congress in Tamil Nadu. However, with the Congress itself a weakened force in the state, only the coming days will tell how this hand will play out.