Udhayanidhi Stalin, shy actor and daring anti-Sanatani, now deputy CM

CHENNAI: A shy ‘youngster’ content remaining in the mighty shadows of his iconic grandfather Kalaignar M Karunanidhi till August 2018 and playing a supportive role to his powerful party president father M K Stalin since then, actor turned politician Udhayanidhi Stalin has come a ‘long way’ to become the deputy Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu in a short span of his political career.

Born into one of the reputed political families of the country at the end of infamous emergency days in November 1977 (Karunanidhi was a two-time Chief Minister by then), Udhayanidhi was just a regular Chennai youngster who completed BSc Visual Communication from Loyola College in the city after good schooling like many youngsters of that period did.

An enterprising Udhay in fact only introduced snow bowling to Chennai upon his return from the US where he completed his MBA. A reluctant Udhay had the comfort of observing the wizardry of politics from his statesman grandfather and father from a distance even then. An introvert, Udhayanidhi had even admitted on numerous occasions that he would not take the political plunge. True to his words till then, he restricted himself to business. The state caught a glimpse of the aspirational scion of the biggest and most powerful political family of Tamil Nadu sometime in 2008 when he debuted in movie business by producing Vijay starrer ‘Kuruvi’ in 2008. His fame breached box office records with some of the big ticket movies he bankrolled (till the end of the DMK regime in 2011), before his avatar changed to an actor in 2012 with the movie “Ok Ok” co-starring Santhanam.

Though a couple of movies suggested a newfound political aspiration of Stalin junior, it bloomed during the twilight of Kalaignar when the actor hit the streets for socio-political causes like Cauvery issue with an army of DMK lieutenants flanking him.

Enriched with a degree in media and experience in movie production, Udhay’s venture into politics started from the realm of social media. Still an actor, he did not hesitate to even take a veiled dig at Rajinikanth on the CAA issue in 2019. His active political plunge unfolded the same year when he was appointed secretary of the DMK’s youth wing.

Though his witty one-liners and memes on social media created the political traction needed to actively launch his political career, he became a real deal in TN politics in 2021 when he wielded the “AIIMS brick”, which became a runaway hit during the Assembly poll campaign. The man seen as an actor turned aspiring politician transformed into the star poll campaigner of the DMK so much that he dwarfed his father, Stalin, the party president and CM candidate then.

Elected MLA from his grandfather’s Chepauk - Triplicane in April 2021, he was spring-boarded to the office of State Youth Affairs Minister in December 2022. An avowed atheist who took over from his father and grandfather, Udhay did not waste any time in reviving his cadre base and ideological roots. As if the ideologically strong articles published in the party organ ‘Murasoli’ helmed by him since 2016 were not enough, Udhay organized the Dravidian model workshop to educate his cadre and affirm his ideological commitment. His ideological moorings were so strong that he did not mind participating in the Dravidar Viduthalai Kazhagam conference and even questioning “Sanathana Dharma”, a daring political adventure that landed him in trouble with court cases filed in a few BJP-ruled states and also put him in the national political map faster than his father.

Not surprisingly, he shone brightly also as a sports minister, successfully organising the Khelo India Youth Games, Asian Hockey championship and the controversy-ridden F4 street race a few months ago, in addition to launching a slew of schemes for sports promotion. His uncanny knack for connecting with the voters through a not so rhetoric Tamil flourish was on display again during the 2024 Parliamentary polls when took the BJP to the cleaners through his “29 paisa” campaign targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the measly allocation to the BJP from divisible central tax pool.

Meanwhile, his evolution in the party and the government, chairing high-level party and department meetings, was so glaring that his appointment as deputy CM was a mere formality even in the eyes of the public. The biggest challenge for the 46-year-old deputy CM could be in 2026 when his experienced DMK bigwigs would face political greenhorn, actor Vijay’s Tamizhaga Vettri Kazhagam in what could be a multi-cornered election.