Superstar to political stardom: The rise of Suresh Gopi

Superstar Suresh Gopi, who has realised a Lok Sabha debut for the BJP from Kerala with his victory from Thrissur, can boast of a long story of hard survival both in Malayalam cinema and politics. In his 39-year-long film career, Gopi, 65, has earned praise for his acting and dialogue delivery, but he has also had to battle ups and downs.

Gopi can also be proud of his eight years of political life with the BJP, having survived factions in the party in Kerala and scripting the victory in Thrissur by a margin of over 74,000 votes over the CPI’s V.S Sunil Kumar (his nearest rival) and K. Muraleedharan, fielded by the Congress. This when two BJP heavyweights, Union ministers V. Muraleedharan and Rajeev Chandrasekhar, lost their electoral contests in Attingal and Thiruvananthapuram, respectively.

As a politician, Gopi made it to people’s hearts with his hard work, philanthropy and support of the Catholic community in Thrissur. “I thank the people for showering their blessings. I will remain with Thrissur and the people of Kerala and serve them,” Gopi told INDIA TODAY.

In his student days in Kollam back in the seventies, Gopi, a postgraduate in English from Fatima Mata National College, was a follower of the communist ideology and an active worker of the Students Federation of India, the student wing of the CPI(M). In the nineties, he became a fan of the late Left chief minister E.K. Nayanar.

Later, Gopi developed proximity with late chief minister K. Karunakaran of the Congress and his family. It all paid off now when Karunakaran’s daughter Padmaja Venugopal left the Congress for the BJP before the general elections and worked with Gopi to defeat her brother K. Muraleedharan.

Gopi started nursing political dreams after his films began faring poorly at the box-office in the past decade. Some of his close friends discouraged him, pointing to how superstars like Mammootty and Mohanlal had distanced themselves from party politics despite having strong political minds. They also reminded him of the fate of Prem Nazir, the evergreen actor of Malayalam cinema who had disastrously failed in electoral politics.

But Gopi was determined to make it in politics, and did. “Suresh Gopi is a genuine person who likes to help the poor and the needy. His victory is a return gift from god for this work,” said Salim Kumar, a National Award winning Malayalam cinema actor. “While I don’t subscribe to his political ideology, I like him as a person.”

Gopi, a former Rajya Sabha MP, had made two unsuccessful attempts in electoral politics. In 2019, he was the BJP candidate from Thrissur and secured over 293,000 votes and a 28.3 per cent vote share, coming third behind the Congress and CPI candidates. In the 2021 assembly polls, he contested from Thrissur assembly seat, and lost by less than 5,000 votes despite getting a sizeable vote share of over 31 per cent.

Gopi’s strategists then realised that victory in Thrissur would continue to elude him without the support of Christians in the constituency. An outreach to the community began. Gopi’s credentials also got a boost from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visits to Thrissur in the run-up to the general elections. In January, Modi attended the marriage of Gopi’s daughter Bhagya Suresh, adding to the speculation that he was tipped to get a BJP ticket.

Both the Left and the Congress had underrated Gopi. They took him to be an actor merely testing the ground for the BJP in Kerala. Controversy came calling when the police, last October, slapped a case against Gopi on a complaint by a woman journalist that he had allegedly placed his hand on her shoulder without her consent during an interaction in a hotel in Kozhikode. As the issue went viral, several actresses came forward to support Gopi. “I’ll not forget it till I go to my grave,” Gopi told the media in a post-victory interaction.

Gopi, at the moment, is the BJP’s power horse in Kerala, the party’s lone face from the state in the lower house of Parliament. That in itself puts huge responsibility on his shoulders. The brand ambassador of Lotus in Kerala will need to deliver for his electorate. Gopi rushed to Delhi after receiving a call from BJP bosses and is speculated to be in contention for a berth in the Modi cabinet. But his ambition doesn’t end there. Gopi wants to be the chief minister of Kerala one day, steering his party to glory. Mission possible?

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