Socially conscious and politically active artistes have always been a near rarity in Mumbai's tinsel world.

The sudden star burst of celebrity artistes, televion and cinema included, onto the political firmament in the last three weeks was thus bound to incite media attention and public scrutiny. For the first time (bar a sporadic Arvind (Ravana) Trivedi and Deepika (Sita) Chikhalia, television artistes have not been seen on the political circuit much. The growing influence of the likes of Smriti Z Iraani on the public psyche however probably had the canny political coordinators making a beeline for the stars of the moment, eager to capitalise on their ephemeral fame.

Smriti Z Iraani - righteous indignation

The issue took a serious bend when leading eveninger Mid day on Thursday listed the monies that were exchanging hands in the run up to the elections. Anger swelled through the ranks of those accused of accepting monetary gratification in return for public appearances. In an interview on Star News' National Reporter the same evening, Smriti Iraani fumed at the media for having 'tainted her character', called Mid day editor Aakar Patel a liar for saying that the newspaper had indeed contacted her for her version of the story before it went into print. Poonam Dhillon shrugged graceful shoulders and laughed off the idea of having accepted Rs 10,00,000 per appearance, saying she had enough work on hand to get paid for.

While the 'feel good' party has managed to rope in the most known faces on television currently, leaving the Congress with second rung artistes, the Nationalist Congress Party (with no known faces currently lending their support to its cause) has decided to appeal to the Election Commission to probe the allegations of 'pressure tactics and attempts to evade Income Tax' by parties and artistes alike.

TV stars though are enjoying the momentary fame. Some are candid enough to admit that they are willing to trade in a few hours for the pecuniary benefit it brings. Shweta Keswani told the media today that parties using artistes was akin to cola companies getting stars to endorse their products. Achint Kaur told indiantelevision.com that she too has been offered a good sum of money for devoting five days in April to the campaigns, but that she turned it down. "I don't have any ambitions of becoming a minister, nor am I struggling for money."

Aman Varma - no qualms

Aman Varma who campaigned for a party during the assembly elections last year, too doesn't have any qualms about artistes accepting money, but says he opted out of joining the party when he realised it would require a lot of his time. Lesser known artistes too have not had it so good. Gurdeep Kohli and Arjun Punj, both of whom started their TV careers with Sanjivani on Star Plus, say they have been getting numerous calls to campaign for political parties, but are not interested.

The fact that many of the artistes may not even be familiar with the ideology and principles of the party they campaign for too seems secondary. While an irate Iraani sounded righteously offended at the slur on her commitment to the party she endorses, Dhillon admitted to Star News that the 'star factor' may be pulling in more people to campaign venues, though she too dismissed the Mid day report as 'speculative and irresponsible.'

While Dhillon who shifted from campaigning to the Congress the last elections to the BJP now may not be majorly politically ambitious, there are others like Iraani who sound ideologically clear and politiclaly ambitious. From getting popular on the screen to getting into the public arena has been but a small step for several big screen stars. For the oft-viewed TV stars, a primary membership to a political party could just be a small step in the same direction.

For the rest, it's just a case of making hay while the sun shines.