Filmy Rajniti Chakkar

True, Indian film stars, both in Bollywood and regional Indian cinema, have sought to influence Indian politics since 1923, then as champions of the freedom struggle with the launching of Rani Padmini, a silent film or "walkie." Their more direct involvement in the Indian political process began some 50 years ago with the induction of the patriarch of India's cinema world, Prithvy Raj Kapoor, into the Rajya Sabha, the Upper House of Indian Parliament, by the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. All hell broke lose when the film was released in Bihar. Theaters were burned and [Prakash Jha], also a candidate for the Lok Sabha, was pelted with stones at his political rallies. Yadav denounced him as a "dull-headed filamwallah" and a "mental case who joined politics as his films are flopping." Another RJD leader Nagendra Rai, a former playback singer turned politician, ridiculed Jha as a "100 percent pure lunatic who thrives by portraying Bihar in a wrong ways in Bollywood." [Laloo Prasad Yadav], once publicly announced that he would transform Bihar's roads, making them as beautiful as Hema Malini's gaal (cheeks). During the last Lok Sabha polls, BJP campaigner Pramod Mahajan on a visit to Bihar, retorted that far from matching Hema Malini's cheeks, the incompetent Laloo government had turned Bihar's roads as pock marked as the gaal of Om Puri.