Check out the telly celebs who joined politics

MUMBAI: Whenever we stick to our business for a long point of time, human instincts normally drive individuals towards other areas of pleasure, being exposed to which these individuals divide their total time and dedication for one activity in equal halves to shift focus amid two or more activities (including the new work areas), or, completely divert away from their core work space to settle down in a new work space of their respective interest.

Either way, this helps individuals to replenish their worn out knowledges and skills in order to perform better activities.  

Same formula applies for our Bolly-telly stars as well. So many renowned actor-actresses from the past and the present co-maintain their core work-schedule with other different and newly discovered activities or totally give-up their core-field of the glitz-glamour industry to settle down and concentrate in other spheres of life.

Today, let's take a note of our beloved telly-stars who have joined politics and some of whom from the list maintain a balance between both these fields of work and participation, while the others have quit the showbiz industry for good, in order to establish their political identity and influence amid the common citizens.

Take a look at these stars below:

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1. Smriti Irani

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The Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi fame (aka television's popular bahu 'Tulsi Virani') debuted on the small screen with TV series like Aatish and Hum Hain Kal Aaj Aur Kal in the year 2000. After gaining immense fame as on-screen Tulsi and doing other shows in various channels, Smriti left the showbiz world for good in 2010 after being appointed as the 'National Secretary of BJP' and on 24th June 2010, she was appointed the 'All India President' of the BJP's women's wing - 'BJP Mahila Morcha'. 

For the unversed, Irani had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as early as in 2003 and lately, she won the 2019 Lok Sabha elections by defeating Congress' President Rahul Gandhi. 

Currently, she's an active Minister in the Union Cabinet of India. She is serving in the cabinet of Narendra Modi as 'Minister of Textiles' and was given additional charge as 'Minister of Women and Child Development' in the 2nd cabinet of Modi since May 2019. She is also a member of the Parliament in the Lok Sabha by representing Amethi.

2. Navjot Singh Sidhu

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Sidhu is an Indian politician, television personality and former cricketer.

He started his career as a professional cricketer in 1981, which spanned over 19 years. After losing his place in the national team after his international debut in 1983-84, he returned to score four half-centuries in the 1987 World Cup. He became extremely popular for hitting simultaneous sixes and earned the sobriquet 'Sixer Sidhu'.

Sidhu joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2004 and contested as a candidate for Amritsar's general election that year. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2016 from Punjab before he resigned from the position the same year and quitting the party. He later joined the Indian National Congress in 2017 and was elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly from Amritsar East.

In the entertainment industry, he's most notably seen as a judge of comedy shows and as a permanent guest in Comedy Nights with Kapil (2013-2015), which later became The Kapil Sharma Show (2016-2019). He was also a contestant in Bigg Boss 6 and acted in a Hindi show Kyaa Hoga Nimmo Kaa.

3. Rakhi Sawant

Telly fame Rakhi Sawant made her Bollywood debut in the 1997 film Agnichakra. She turned famous as an 'item girl' by doing peppy dance numbers in Bollywood films like Joru Ka Ghulam, Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehta Hain, and Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke. However, her breakthrough item number 'Mohabbat Hai Mirchi' (which was composed by Himesh Reshammiya) was a massive hit. She even did small roles in the films like Masti and Main Hoon Na. Lately, she was a candidate of Bigg Boss 14.

On 26 March 2014, she planned to contest for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Mumbai North-West as an Independent Candidate. On 28 March, she founded the Rashtriya Aam Party (RAP), which was devoid of a symbol and it was being speculated that Sawant suggested to use a 'green chili' for the same, owing to it's resemblance with her personality. After receiving only 15 votes from the Mumbai North-West Constituency, Sawant resigned from the Rashtriya Aam Party and joined the RPI (Athavale) party in June 2014 by expressing her will to work for the 'dalits'. Currently, Rakhi serves as party's state vice-president and president of the woman wing.

4.  Nitish Bharadwaj

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Actor Nitish Bharadwaj gained immense fame for portraying the role of 'Lord Krishna' in B. R. Chopra's television series Mahabharat (1988), as well as for his portrayal of 'Lord Vishnu' and his other avatars in Chopra's other great works such as Vishnu Puran. He debuted on the small screen for playing Krishna's role at the age of 23. In 2002, he also played the role of 'Lord Rama in Chopra's Ramayan.

Bharadwaj contested the parliamentary elections from Jamshedpur (in Jharkhand) and Rajgarh (in Madhya Pradesh) as a Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate. He was elected to the Lok Sabha as a member of Parliament from Jamshedpur in 1996 by defeating veteran politician Inder Singh Namdhari. He also worked in BJP's organisational unit of Madhya Pradesh and was also it's 'Spokesperson' for sometime before taking a voluntarily retirement from active politics. 

5. Arun Govil

Arun first debuted in Bollywood with Prashanta Nanda's Paheli (1977) and shot to stardom with Kanak Mishra's Sawan Ko Aane Do (1979) and Satyen Bose's Saanch Ko Aanch Nahin (1979). Years later, he made his small screen debut in Ramanand Sagar's Vikram Aur Betaal (1985) but he gained critical appreciation for his role as 'Lord Rama' in Sagar's TV series Ramayan (1986), for which he had won the Uptron Award in the 'Best Actor in a Leading Role' category in 1988. He reprised his role as Rama in Sagar's Luv Kush.

Recently, It was on last Thursday when the actor made his way to the headlines almost 33 years later for joining the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) ahead of the assembly elections in four states and the union territory of Puducherry. 

6. Shekhar Suman

Shekhar Suman debuted in Bollywood as a leading hero in many movies, including the Magnum opus UTSAV opposite Rekha, which was produced by Shashi Kapoor and directed by Girish Karnad. He has worked in nearly 35 films, namely Manav Hatya (opposite Madhuri Dixit), Naache Mayuri, Sansar, Anubhav Tridev, Pati Parmeshwar, Ranbhoomi, Chor Machaye Shor, Ek Se Badhkar Ek, Bhoomi etc. On television, he debuted in a popular serial Wah Janaab with Kiran Juneja and went on doing other shows like Dekh Bhai Dekh, Reporter, Kabhi Idhar Kabhi Udhar, Chote Babu, Andaz, Vilayati Babu, Movers n Shakers, Simply Shekhar and Carry On Shekhar. Lately, Suman made his directorial debut with 2014 film Heartless.

Shekhar Suman appeared for the 2009 Lok Sabha Elections in May from Patna Sahib on Congress ticket but lost to BJP's Shatrughan Sinha, which landed him in the third place.

7. Javed Jaffery

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Javed Jaffrey is the son of comedian Jagdeep. He is a renowned dub-master who had dubbed Mickey Mouse, Goofy and Don Karnage's voices in the Hindi language for Disney along with the antagonists' voice for Pixar's The Incredibles. He also did Hindi commentary for the Japanese TV show Takeshi's Castle and Ninja Warrior on Pogo TV and Hungama respectively.

He debuted in the Bollywood film Meri Jung (1985) and enacted the role of a villain and had also showcased his dancing skills on-screen. He further bagged various side and comical roles for many Hindi movies then after. He won his first IIFA Award for best comic role in Salaam Namaste in 2006. On the small-screen, the launch of cable TV, particularly Channel [V] and its irreverent sense of humour gave him a niche to depict his brand of comedy. He was also called 'TVdom's first real superstar'. 

He has also anchored and hosted reality shows like Videocon Flashback, Timex Timepass (wherein he shifted between the caricatures of characters), dance competition show Boogie Woogie on Sony Entertainment Television Asia with his brother Naved Jaffery and friend Ravi Behl and a game show called Mai Ka Laal on Disney Channel India. 

In the political front, Jaffrey contested d for the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections from Lucknow as a candidate of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP). However, he lost to BJP's Rajnath Singh by finishing fifth in the constituency and securing 41,429.

8. Gul Panag

Gul Panag is an Indian actress, voice actress, model and a former beauty queen who had competed in the Miss Universe pageant. 

Panag debuted in Bollywood with the 2003 film Dhoop and from there, she worked in films like Jurm, Dor, Dhoop, Manorama Six Feet Under, Hello, Straight and Ab Tak Chhappan 2. She is also known for her popular TV series Kashmeer. 

In the political arena, in 2014, she contested for the 'Aam Aadmi Party' from Chandigarh during the Indian general elections and she secured the third position with 1,08,679 votes, while Kirron Kher won the election with 1,91,362 votes.

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Source: Internet