Chennai: Ahead of the launch of his political party, superstar Rajinikanth’s Makkal Mandran, seen as a precursor to the party, has initiated process for launching a television channel, which is now considered a 'must' for political heavyweights.
Rajinikanth has informed in a letter to the Registrar of Trademarks that an application made by the Mandram chief V.M. Sudhakar for trademarks may be processed ‘to the next level’ and he had no objection to the use of his name and photo in the logo of the proposed channel. The matter came to light after this letter went viral on social media and sources close to the star confirmed its veracity on Friday.
Administrator Sudhakar of the Rajini Makkal Mandram has applied for the trademarks 'SUPERSTAR TV, RAJINI TV, THALAIVAR TV'--all references to the actor. The move is seen as keeping in line with the tradition of political parties in Tamil Nadu having their own TV channels to effectively propagate their policies and programmes.
While the ruling AIADMK had recently launched 'News J' to propagate its views, a bouquet of channels under the 'Kalaignar TV' and the Marans-owned 'Sun TV' are said to be backing the opposition DMK. 'Jaya TV', managed by the relatives of V K Sasikala, was originally a mouthpiece of the AIADMK, but now backs Amma Makkal Munnetra Katchi (AMMK) chief T T V Dhinakaran.
Speculations of Rajini's political entry had started way back in 1996 when he made some 'frank' criticism of the then Jayalalithaa government, declaring, "even God cannot save Tamil Nadu" if Jayalalithaa was voted to be the CM again. He had then extended open support to the then DMK-Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) combine, which swept the 1996 assembly polls. TMC was floated by veteran Congressman, late G K Mooapanar, after he quit the national party.
The 68-year old actor had announced taking the political plunge in December 2017 while interacting with his fans here. He said he would practice 'spiritual politics' (aanmeega-arasiyal) and made clear his to-be-launched political party would contest in all the 234 constituencies in the 2021 Assembly elections.
