Illayathalapathy Vijay: The new Rajinikanth of Kollywood

For people who didn’t know that celebrities are looked upon as demi-gods, the incident that took place on Dickenson Road yesterday is proof enough. The launch of a jewellery store saw Kollywood superstar Illayathalapathy Vijay visiting the city on Saturday morning. If you think that only stars like Amitabh Bachchan or Rajinikanth can witness such fan frenzy, this one seemed to have challenged them all!

Picture this: Fans hanging from the trees, buildings and almost everything else to catch a glimpse of the star; the entire road which had hosts of people trying to take pictures of him on their mobile phones; young lads calling out slogans and holding placards for the star; kids gleaming with joy when the star lifted his hand to wave to his fans — this is pretty much the scene in India when the local people gets to witness their favourite star.

With fans being overjoyed at one side, one could witness an action-packed scene going on the other side. With fans climbing on top of the cars and trying to fall on the superstar himself, the police force had a tough time handling fan frenzy. Impatient with their attempt, some police personnel used lathis to control the situation. With security guards banging the gates on the faces of the people, the injuries that people suffered definitely need a mention.

You have kids holding on to their mothers, crying to take a picture with him; along with chairs and boards falling down — the scene was quite pathetic, we must add. It was a tough task for mediapersons to enter the store. With security guards and the police questioning why we didn’t come at 7.30am, it came as a quite shocker for us.

With Vijay’s upcoming film Velayudham releasing this Diwali and his political ambitions being the hot topic, all this worked to his advantage. With this kind of chaos and confusion, it looks like the new superstar has arrived. However, all this fan fare is undoubtedly overwhelmin