Andhra Pradesh deputy chief minister Pawan Kalyan has candidly said he is jealous of fellow actor-politician Vijay, who recently became the CM of Tamil Nadu after a blockbuster debut at the ballot.
Kalyan, himself a star of the Telugu film industry, noted that he had to work for 15 years before he got success as a politician.
'I look at Tamil politics these days; they've done it so carefree. I felt jealous. They won using cutouts and holograms happily,' he said with a laugh.
Pawan Kalyan's long political journey began with the establishment of his Jana Sena Party (JSP) in March 2014, but it wasn't until the 2024 general and assembly elections that he ended up as deputy CM.
Both Kalyan and Vijay are part of a lineage of film stars becoming mega-politicians, particularly in South India.
They carry grand nicknames or monikers also as part of a South Indian movie fan tradition, with Kalyan known as 'Power Star' and Vijay as 'Thalapathy' (commander).
