Ambareesh - a rebel star rises in Delhi durbar
Oct 25, 2006 Fakir BalajiThe 55-year-old three-time Lok Sabha member from Mandya in the old Mysore region has been waiting in the wings to fill the void of his dominant Vokkaliga community's representation from the state in the Manmohan Singh ministry.
The news of Ambareesh becoming union minister was greeted by jubilant crowds in Mandya, about 100 km from here, and heralded nightlong celebrations, including bursting of crackers and visit to the temples.
"This is a double whammy, coming as it does as a Diwali and Eid gift to the people of Mandya, especially the thousands of Ambareesh fans across the state," farmer Thippe Gowda said over the phone.
Though three of his party MPs from the state - M.V. Rajashekaran, K.H. Muniyappa and Oscar Fernandes - have been part of the union government for the last two years, the elevation of Ambareesh to the ministerial post has come as a short-in-the-arm for the Congress in the state.
Grandson of Carnatic musician T. Chowdaiah, Ambareesh strayed into the hotbed of Karnataka politics in the mid-1990s by joining the erstwhile Janata Dal (JD) after a long career in the Kannada celluloid world during which he acted in about 200 films, portraying diverse roles such as angry young man, villain and comedian.
In spite of his star power, Ambareesh's political innings began on a sour note when he was defeated in the Ramanagaram assembly by-election in early 1997 by C.M. Lingappa of the Congress.
In the 1998 mid-term poll, Ambareesh contested as a JD candidate from the Mandya parliamentary constituency and won for the first time to enter the Lok Sabha.
Switching over to the Congress the following year, he again got elected to the 13th Lok Sabha in the 1999 snap poll and scored a hat-trick by winning in the 2004 general elections from the same parliamentary constituency.
Observers say Ambareesh has been made central minister with an eye on the upcoming Chamundeshwari assembly by-election in Mysore district, where former state deputy chief minister Siddaramaiah will be re-contesting after quitting the JD-S and joining the Congress recently.
"With H.D. Kumaraswamy, who is also a Vokkaliga, facing the first by-election after becoming the chief minister in February, the Chamundeshwari contest is being seen as a referendum of sorts for the nine-month JD-S-BJP coalition government that has been embroiled in a mire of controversies from corruption charges to lack of performance," said a senior Congress leader.
Though Siddaramaiah belongs to the backward classes (Kuruba community), the large presence of Vokkaliga electorate and the farmers' lobby in the assembly segment could be a decisive factor in the battle royale, the leader added.
Popularly known as "Mandya the Gandu" (man of Mandya), Ambareesh was part of the troika, with matinee idol Rajkumar and superstar Vishnuvardhan, that dominated the Kannada film world over three decades from the 1960s to the 1990s.
Long-time friend and fan K. Venkatesh recalled Ambareesh's humble beginnings in a family whose main occupation was agriculture.
"Ambareesh began with small roles and went to don even negative characters in films like 'Nagara Havu'. He was introduced to filmdom by late director Puttanna Kanagal and continued to act in many of the latter's movies like 'Ranganayaki'.
"Many of his roles were tailored to give him an image of an angry young man who was the victim of the corrupt system. His roles portrayed rebellion against the system. Of late, he has been playing character roles in Kannada films," Venkatesh told IANS.
While some of Ambareesh films like "Antha", "Tony", "Rani Maharani" and "Mannina Doni" were silver jubilee hits, running to full houses for months in the pre-television era, his major box office hit was "Yelu Suttinna Kote".
Ambareesh married actress Sumalatha in 1992 and has a son Abhishek.
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