SRK gently disses obsessive fans in 'Fan': Your turn, Rajini Sir?

Curiously enough then, Fan seems to be gently chiding the leading man's core constituency: not sane supporters who respect his art and are drawn to his charisma, not mere admirers, but devotees. This then is the risk the film holds.

It is a risk worth taking. After all, extreme fandom can pretty quickly turn from a non-aggressive fixation to verbal or even physical violence. Fans who watch the same film 25 times in the week of its release, deem it their duty to make' it a hit and build shrines within their homes, are just a hop, a skip and a jump away from the ones who take it upon themselves to spew venom at a star's rivals online, who try to intimidate critics before a release and afterwards troll those who wrote negative reviews.

They are so mired in their own infatuation that earlier this week they lacked the discernment to realise that Ram Gopal Varma was, in all probability, having a lark at their expense with his tweets mocking Rajinikanth's looks, posted possibly after more than a couple of shots of whatever it is RGV consumes before he tweets.

Offline, they have built actual physical temples to Amitabh Bachchan and Khushboo, and bathe giant likenesses of Rajini in milk on the morning of each new release. They sent letters written in their own blood to Rajesh Khanna and threw themselves at the Beatles' cars. They weep at concerts and faint at premieres. And when it gets worse, they are that stalker claiming to be Taylor Swift's husband, against whom she had to get a restraining order from a Los Angeles court; that woman who scratched John Abraham and told him with satisfaction that she now had his blood and skin under her nails; that man who allegedly followed Shruti Haasan around, finally turned up at her Mumbai home and assaulted her.

This is not admiration, it is obsession to the exclusion of sense, sanity and self-respect. Psychologists say such people see the star as an extension of their own selves, and derive their self-worth from her/his achievements. Witness their excited online chatter, for instance, about how "our film is a hit" and "we did it".

As mediapersons we often end up being abused, praised, harangued and harassed by such people. To be honest, the word that comes to mind for them is "loser". The problem with that label though is that it is a casual expression of irritation that fails to consider the dangerous aspects of fandom.

...it is commendable and completely surprising that Khan and his director Maneesh Sharma have stuck their necks out - as should more non-exploitative celebrities - to tell fans that even in their fervour, some lines ought never to be crossed.

Cricketer Virat Kohli set another great example just last month by slamming those who trolled his ex-girlfriend, actress-producer Anushka Sharma, after he powered India to victory in a crucial match. Meanwhile, in an ongoing legal case, a Chennai court issued a temporary injunction on March 26, asking Rajinikanth fans "not to put any flex banners or cutouts and not to propitiate milk on the flex banners or cutouts". This was shortly before the ceremony in which Rajini was to be honoured with a Padma Vibhushan.

There should be no pride in knowing that there are human beings out there whose entire identity revolves around their pre-occupation with you or that your fanatical followers abuse your former lover. It should be a matter of personal embarrassment that in a poor nation, people indulge in a colossal waste of milk to wash your colossal cut-outs. Fandom, decency, common sense, rationality and mental stability should not be mutually exclusive propositions.

Speak up, Rajini Sir. Please do.