It has been a season of political leaders morphing into superheroes or getting into the shoes of much fancied main protagonists in `Raees' or `Don 2' as spoofs of popular movies featuring politicians have added some filmi masala to the Assembly elections.
If Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat turned into none other than Bahubali in a publicity video, carrying the state on his shoulders, Uttar Pradesh CM Akhilesh Yadav has stepped into Shahrukh Khan's shoes in spoof videos inspired by Khan starrers `Raees' and `Don 2'.
The video featuring Rawat, based on the mega hit Telugu film `Bahubali', showed the CM lift the state on his shoulders, much like the main protagonist in the film had carried a mammoth shivling on his shoulders. The spoof showed the Uttarakhand CM take on “villains” like Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah.
One version of the spoof has got close to 70,000 views on Youtube. Rawat insists that the video titled `Uttarakhand Har Har Harda' has not been made at the behest of the Congress, and the party has not released it. He says it has been uploaded by an admirer.
In neighbouring UP, Akhilesh Yadav has starred in a spoof based on the recent release `Raees'. The video has Akhilesh in the role played by Shahrukh, while wife and Lok Sabha MP Dimple Yadav replaces lead actress Mahira Khan. Modi is superimposed onto the character played by Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
Yadav also finds himself in another spoof, this time in the role of the main protagonist in 'Don 2'. The video, titled `Akhilesh 2' has him mouthing the line that goes something like “My enemies thought that I would never return. But I will come back.” He also says, “Now, no one can stop me.”
His rival, BSP supremo Mayawati and Modi also feature in the video, which has Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi make an appearance as Yadav's collaborator. The video ends with Akhilesh letting go of Modi's hand in mid-air.
The two Akhilesh videos, which have got more than one lakh views on the Internet, have been developed by animator Faizan Siddiqui.
