Advani today said Bollywood is the India’s and BJP’s best icon. Bollywood will make India superpower and BJP world’s most popular party. It started with Hema, Garam Dharam and the saga continued with the whole Bollywood eager to get in the slot machine called BJP 2004. 

The enrolments over, now for deployment. With so much of Bollywood trooping into the BJP, the party has come up with a way to put them to use. Good old musical stage shows. This is optimum utilisation of resources. And innovative campaigning -- get hold of a captive audience and let it flow. The BJP has an embarrassment of riches in the form of actors, singers and the like. Only some could be accommodated as neta s. So the party is organising shows with stellar presence in various cities. The first of these was held in Hyderabad with Kumar Sanu, Ravindra Jain, Suresh Oberoi, Jeetendra and Smriti Irani regaling the crowds, and a similar pantheon performs in the Capital on Friday. 

You wouldn’t be blamed for thinking it is a regular Bollywood star show. Only a closer look will suggest it’s actually politainment -- entertainment with a political message. All the songs are paeans to Atal Bihari Vajpayee and about the BJP’s achievements only cleverly sung to popular Hindi film tunes by balladeers like Kumar Sanu. Everyone goes back happy. 

The stars have already provided a sample of what’s in store. Like Sanu singing " Atalji ko dekha to aisa laga " adapted from his popular number from the film 1942 - A Love Story . For those who want more, there are cassettes and CDs to be picked up with the title " Kamal khil gaya " and the beaming trio of Vajpayee, L K Advani and Venkaiah Naidu.

GLAM BRIGADE : The BJP has collected a huge amount of star power both from television and the silver screen. Many of them will be seen on stage for the Mahashakti Bharat shows.

The songs are taken from popular films like Lagaan and Baghbaan and given a BJP twist. So Radha kaise na jale becomes Radha kaise na chale . And Baghbaan’ s Ishq ki hawa chali becomes BJP ki hawa chali , with Sudesh Bhosle at his Amitabh best. 
There will be shows in Jaipur and some UP towns too. The cast of characters may change according to who is free from campaign duty – they have the glamorous Yukta Mukhi and Poonam Dhillon, dream girl Hema Malini to name but a few. The theme remains the same. The shows -- called the Mahashakti Bharat Sangeet Sandhya -- revolve around the BJP’s theme song, Mahashakti Bharat, that promises India as a superpower by 2015, with a focus on development. 

The opening show in Hyderabad did not quite gather the crowds expected, but the organisers say that was because it clashed with partner Chandrababu Naidu’s rally next door. So the BJP is not cribbing. In any case, it expects a bigger response at the Talkatora stadium in the Capital. 

With feel-good and India Shining losing some gloss, BJP leaders admit the Mahashakti Bharat message has been underplayed. It has not got the mindshare the other campaigns have. The theme song itself can be heard on the BJP website, but there is no descriptive text for it. 

In the final phase of electioneering, however, the BJP plans to focus on development as a plank. Enter Mahashakti Bharat and more stage shows.