It is that whistle, that applause, the life-size cut-outs and the ritualistic milk anointment that keeps up the stake of an onscreen actor. Fans have always been the lifeline of the casts in tinseldom right from the period of M. G. R and Shivaji Ganesan to the present day Ajith and Vijay. M. G. R continues to have a huge fan following even after his demise.

The fan following these two stars, Ajith and Vijay enjoy, are phenomenal. Every time a movie of theirs release there is so much fan-fare. The success of their hero is celebrated as their personal success, such is the involvement. The trends keep changing, so does the celebration. Apart from celebrating movie releases, the fans today even celebrate the release of first look posters and the audio releases.

The latest Ajith starrer Vedhalam’s audio was released online on 15th October, on the eve of the birthday of Composer Anirudh, the music director of the film. Even as it is known that the promotional events, functions and audio release events of Ajith’s movies are usually low-profile since the Aarambam actor does not take part in such functions, the Ajith fans of Coimbatore nevertheless conducted an audio release function at the Archana theatre premises with much ado.

The fans kept chanting “Thala! Thala! Thala!” as the audio disk was released. The atmosphere wore a festive look. Dance, crackers, cheered a lot of people. Ajithkumar was one of those very few actors who took the bold step of disbanding his fan clubs officially a few years ago. But that worked in the favour of his conunterpart Vijay, as his fan club membership showed a steep increase. His unofficial fans however say that they love their thala not just as an actor on screen, but they also admire the kind of human being he is off-screen.

Fans and social media:
Whenever a movie, trailer, teaser, first look or audio of a movie is released, the fans keep talking about it on the social media. A few topics have made it to the national level trends and a few to the world level trends, thanks to the number of internet users in India, particularly Tamilnadu.

Not just fans, both Ajith and Vijay have got almost equal amount of haters. After the entry of social media into the fan base scene, the teasing and trolling has become an order of the day. A recent incident that could stand testimony to the fact is the police complaint registered by one of Actor Vijay’s fans against the three-pages that were anti-Vijay on facebook and twitter. Following this, the pages were withdrawn.

Celebrations are fine, but teasing and bullying should come to an end, opine fans on both sides.