By Ananya Sharma 
Amaravati, May 16: Nobody likes being compared to someone else. Even if the comparison is flattering. Even if the person doing the comparing means well. And when you are a Deputy Chief Minister who spent years bleeding in the political trenches before anyone took you seriously, being lumped together with a man who won on his very first try probably feels like a particular kind of insult.
That is more or less what happened to Pawan Kalyan this week.
Speaking to party workers, Andhra Pradesh’s Deputy Chief Minister did not hold back. “Don’t compare me with a neighbouring state movie star who became Chief Minister,” he reportedly said. Short sentence. Heavy meaning. The kind of thing you say when a comparison has been following you around long enough that you have finally had enough of it.
The neighbouring state movie star in question, of course, is Vijay. Actor. Now Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. And the reason half of South India has been arguing about politics for the past two weeks.
The Phone Call Nobody Expected
Here is where the story gets interesting.
Around the same time Pawan Kalyan was drawing that firm line, his elder brother Chiranjeevi was doing something quite different. The megastar, one of Telugu cinema’s biggest names ever, picked up the phone and personally called Vijay to congratulate him.
Not a tweet. Not a Instagram story. A phone call.
According to reports in Great Andhra and several Telugu news outlets, Chiranjeevi told Vijay he hoped that just as the legendary MGR still lives in the hearts of Tamil people decades after his death, Vijay too would be remembered for his leadership, service, and compassion. That is about as high a compliment as you can pay someone in Tamil political culture. MGR is not just a former Chief Minister to Tamil people. He is practically a religion.
Vijay responded warmly, thanked Chiranjeevi, and mentioned he had recently watched the megastar’s latest film and was delighted to see him back on screen.
Two legends. One warm phone call. Lots of goodwill.
And then there is Pawan Kalyan, Chiranjeevi’s younger brother, telling the world not to compare him with the very man his brother just called up for a friendly chat.
You honestly could not write this stuff.
What Actually Happened in Tamil Nadu
To understand why all of this is blowing up, you need to know what happened in Tamil Nadu a few weeks back.
Vijay, full name C. Joseph Vijay, launched his political party Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam, or TVK, a few years ago. People watched. Some laughed. Another actor playing politician, they said. Tamil Nadu had seen this before.
Then the election happened.
TVK won 108 seats in the 234-member Tamil Nadu assembly. Not quite enough for a majority on its own, which sits at 118. But close enough that it did not matter for long. Congress backed him with five MLAs. Then the CPI, CPI(M), VCK, and IUML all came on board, two MLAs each, and that was enough. Vijay formed the government.
The man he replaced did not have a quiet exit. MK Stalin, who had been running Tamil Nadu since 2021, lost his own seat in Kolathur to a TVK candidate. He became the first sitting Chief Minister in Tamil Nadu to lose a personal election since Jayalalithaa back in 1996. That is a big deal. That is a very big deal.
Social media went absolutely wild. “CM Vijay” was trending everywhere. Fans were celebrating like it was a blockbuster release night.
And naturally, since this is how people think, the comparisons started. Another South Indian film star. Another political party from nothing. Another unlikely rise to power. People looked at Vijay and immediately thought of Pawan Kalyan. Same script, different state.
Pawan Kalyan, as we now know, does not see it that way.
The Part People Keep Forgetting
His frustration is actually understandable once you know the full story.
In 2019, Pawan Kalyan did not just lose an election. He lost badly. He contested from two seats personally and lost both of them. Then he watched as many of the people closest to him in the party quietly walked away.
Think about what that feels like for a moment. You are one of the biggest stars in Telugu cinema. Millions of people watch your films. Your fans line up overnight for tickets. And then you go out and contest a real election and the voters say, respectfully, no thank you. Twice.
There is no recovering from that quietly. It is all public. Your loss is on the front page. Your people leaving is discussed on television. You cannot just take a few days off and regroup in private the way a normal person might.
He stuck around. He rebuilt. He brought Jana Sena back piece by piece. And in 2024, the results told a completely different story. Jana Sena contested 21 seats and won all 21. The TDP-Jana Sena-BJP alliance swept Andhra Pradesh and Pawan Kalyan was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister alongside Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
That is the journey he wants people to remember. Not the highlights reel. The whole thing, including the part where it nearly fell apart.
Vijay’s debut was genuinely remarkable. First election, forms a government, becomes Chief Minister. That is not a small achievement by any standard. But it is also a debut. Pawan Kalyan’s story has chapters that nobody who went through them would want to repeat.
That is the real difference. Not the destination. The distance covered to get there.
Why Chiranjeevi’s Call Matters More Than It Seems
Chiranjeevi calling Vijay is not just a nice celebrity story. It says something.
This is a man who does not do things for optics. Back in September 2021, he had gone to meet MK Stalin in Chennai, praised his handling of the pandemic, and publicly called him a statesman. Stalin was from a completely different political world. It did not matter. Chiranjeevi showed up, spoke honestly, and left. That is his way.
Now he has done something similar with Vijay. The political situation around him is complicated. His brother is on record saying these comparisons are unfair. His family is connected to the opposing political universe in Andhra. None of that stopped him from picking up the phone.
The MGR reference he used was deliberate. Wishing that Vijay might one day occupy that kind of place in Tamil public memory is not a throwaway line. MGR governed Tamil Nadu for over a decade. He built hospitals, fed school children, gave Tamil cinema a political identity that lasted generations. Invoking his name is invoking the highest standard Tamil Nadu knows.
Chiranjeevi knew what he was saying. And Vijay, who grew up in that world, knew exactly what he was hearing.
This Is an Old Story, Really
The truth is, South India has been having this conversation for a very long time.
MGR became Chief Minister and stayed there until he died. NT Rama Rao in Andhra Pradesh launched a party and won the state on practically nothing but his film image and his voice. Rajinikanth came to the edge of entering politics and then stepped back, twice. Kamal Haasan gave it a serious shot and found that good intentions do not automatically become votes.
Chiranjeevi himself went through it. He launched the Praja Rajyam Party in 2008. He contested. He won a few seats. And eventually he folded the party into Congress, closed that chapter, and returned to films and later public life in a different capacity.
After Vijay’s win, the conversation in political circles quickly turned to who from the film world might try next and which stars had already discovered that screen popularity does not automatically transfer to ballot boxes.
That question never fully goes away in this part of India. Because the relationship between mass cinema and mass politics here is unlike anywhere else in the country. Actors carry something in the South that politicians often cannot manufacture. They are trusted, loved, seen as one of the people in a way that career politicians rarely manage. Sometimes it translates. Sometimes it does not.
Pawan Kalyan and Vijay are both proof that it can translate. Their paths were different. The terrain was different. The failures along the way were different. But they both got there.
What this week shows, perhaps more than anything, is that the conversation around them is just getting started. Pawan Kalyan is still in the middle of proving what kind of Deputy Chief Minister he can be. Vijay is just getting started in a job that will test him in ways no film role ever has.
And Chiranjeevi, elder statesman that he is, is out here building bridges while his brother builds walls.
That phone call will be talked about for a while. So will the pushback.
Both men, it seems, are doing exactly what they have always done. Playing the role. Just on a much bigger stage now.
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- Ananya Sharma
- Ananya Sharma
- Ananya Sharma
- Ananya Sharma
Sandeep Verma