For years, Vijay has been and remains the top-paid artiste in Kollywood and possibly among the highest-paid film stars in the country. His fans form legions ready to take up the cudgels for him, quite belligerently at that, at the mere sign of criticism — either of his movies or of the actor himself. It is this hood that he hopes will stand by him as he quits a successful career at its peak to enter politics and help him become a hero in this arena too. But what is his ideology and what are the issues that drive his party? B. Aravind Kumar analyses the political landscape, with inputs from B. Kolappan, S. Ganesan, and N. Sai Charan