Idols, Kings, and Celebs

While people in the US tend to think of India as one big culture where everybody is the same, such a statement couldn’t be farther from the truth. People are divided very strategically based on their states and regions. Most regions each have their own unique regional language (along with speaking Hindi and English nationwide) which is usually spoken and written. The customs of people from northern states of Punjab and Utter Pradesh are significantly different than the customs people from southern states like Tamil Nadu and Karnataka follow. Situated in Mumbai, which is probably the closest thing to a melting pot in India, I have gotten to see a whole host of different cultures and learned a few phrases in each language. Despite all these cultural differences, there is one thing that is universal in the country regardless of where you’re from; idol-worshipping.

I’ve since realized how much we, in the US, too are guilty of such a shameful thing. I’m not talking about the statues or paintings of God, but rather the incredible power celebrities wield over others. I’m sure some very attractive thin girl could tell you that she stays thin by drinking Diet Coke (and doing “diet” coke); now replace her with Gisele Bundchen and BOOM, you probably just got $1,000,000 more in Diet Coke profit that year. In Mark McCormack’s “What They Don’t Teach You At Harvard Business School”, he talks about a time when Norfolk and Southern wanted to get into Japanese Fuji Iron and Steel’s rail business and since Fuji’s CEO was a big Jack Nicklaus fan, they arranged to have Fuji’s CEO play a round of golf with Nicklaus. In the 60s, Nicklaus was paid $10,000 plus travel and hotel expenses. Five years later, McCormack wrote that Norfolk and Southern had done “about seventeen million dollars of business with Fuji” since the Nicklaus game. Talk about the power that celebs wield. And India is no less.

One thing that unites almost all Indians together is the great game of cricket. Cricket’s popularity is directly equal to that of baseball, football, basketball, and hockey in the United States combined. It’s probably even more. Fires and riots might be most synonymously tied with the sport of cricket. In 2008, when India won the T20 World Cricket Championship, it was like the end of the 2006 Ohio State-Michigan Game when cars were being flipped over and lit on fire and the whole city of Columbus went crazy to celebrate the victory. In Jharkhand, the hometown of Mahendra Singh Dhoni, a statue of the Indian captain was erected to celebrate his success in 2008 after leading the team to victory. In 2009, when India was embarrassed in the same tournament by not even making the Final Four, the statue was burned in a riot. “Dhoni took the T20 world cup lightly. It seems Dhoni is more fascinated by glamour world instead of cricket,” said one rioter to Thaindian News.

After such a meteoric rise to fame, the Indian captain Dhoni currently has 20 outstanding endorsement contracts, second most only to Bollywood king Shah Rukh Khan. The Bollywood actor’s net worth is estimated to be over $300 million (He gets paid in Rupees and if you match the Purchasing Power Parity of India and the US using the not entirely accurate “Big Mac Index”, that number is a lot closer to $800 million). That’s some serious cash that very few American actors, no matter how popular, can wield. But most of that money really comes as a by-product of endorsing products to his “idol-worshipping” fans. But the fascination of idol-worshipping in India doesn’t stop there. Arguably India’s greatest movie star of all time, Amitabh Bachchan, has had such a lasting impact on the country that there are reportedly two temples devoted to him where people regularly go and pray for blessings in their everyday lives.

Now everything I have mentioned about India has been pretty universal for the country, but India hasn’t been the country producing the most films annually based on its Hindi films alone. When you start going to each state separately, you begin to find that each state or region also has their regional cinema and television where actors still make boatloads. Take for example, Tamil movie icon Rajnikanth. Tamil movies aren’t very popular in all of India because the language is really only spoken in the state of Tamil Nadu. But in that state alone, Rajnikanth is god. Let me repeat that for you; In Tamil Nadu, Rajnikanth is God. Here's a link to his trailer Sivaji The Boss if you want to see how ridiculous I think he looks. In that state, the actor has 8 temples devoted to him where people will touch his feet to attain salvation and regularly pray that his movies become big successes. I would bet that a known terrorist discovered in America would have an easier time escaping alive than somebody who publicly bashes Rajnikanth in the state of Tamil Nadu. Even though his films are really only shown in his state (and have somehow developed a following in Japan as well), he was reportedly the second highest paid actor per film in 2008 in all of Asia (Jackie Chan was first).

Now, nothing in this article vindicates Americans of the same crimes. We too, just short of building temples for them, have plenty of celebs who we worship. Now argue why we shouldn’t; if you’re a big fan of Lil Wayne you obviously want his CDs to come out and succeed and if you’re a big fan of Megan Fox you’re obviously hoping she’s going to move into the adult film business at some point (with every other Megan Fox fan, let’sbe honest here). However, I think if we just stopped idolizing these people most of us will probably never get to meet, I think all of us will somehow wake up feeling a little more inexplicably smarter.