''VIJAY ALWAYS ADVISES TO TAKE CARE OF OUR FAMILIES FIRST''

Once there was supposedly a sentiment for Vijay’s filmmakers to shoot one scene in Madurai. The trend started from Ghilli. Later Vijay went on to act in a film called Madurey. Who can forget the famous Maduraikku Pogathadi song from ATM? So there is a strong connection between Madurai and Vijay.

Like the other parts of Tamil Nadu, Vijay enjoys a massive fan base in Madurai too, a place that is wrongly portrayed as the city of violence.  Here we get in touch with Vijay’s Makkal Iyakkam Madurai district president Anban Kallanai to know about how their Makkal Iyakkam functions, their plans for Vijay’s birthday, Vijay’s involvement in Iyakkam and more.

How many fan clubs are there in Madurai?

There are 3 main fan clubs in Madurai, ours is Vijay Makkal Iyakkam Thondarani. There are many wards under every major fan club. By last June 22nd, we had 127 wards under Thondarani. This year we have added another 50 new wards. Every ward will have a minimum of 30 to 40 fans. Similarly other major fan clubs will have 50 to 100 wards under them. We have around 3000 Vijay fans under Thondarani and close to 500 fans are active always.

Celebration plans for Vijay’s birthday?

Since it is Vijay’s 42nd birthday, 42 Vijay fans will be donating blood. We have planned to provide ‘annadhanam’ to 1442 people, covering breakfast, lunch and dinner. A special Pooja is arranged at Madurai Meenakshi Amman temple this morning. We have selected 3 maternity hospitals and we will gift a gold ring for every child that is born today in these 3 hospitals. We have also setup a special free medical camp in the city too. We have also taken an innovative step to help the Sri Lankan Tamil migrants. We have taken a survey of the basic needs from one of the closer by camps. We will address them the coming Sunday.

Who pays for these expenses?

We do it out of our love for Vijay. I am a graduate and I work in a bank. I might spend around 1.5 lakhs to 2 and it could be higher too. But it is a social service that we do in the name of Vijay. Similarly every member chips in with some contribution, some with monetary help while some with their presence. We do it for a personal satisfaction and for the unconditional love that we have for Vijay.

Do you need to pay to become a member in Makkal Iyakkam?

There is no practice of collecting money and misusing them when it comes to Vijay’s fan clubs. If anyone does so, they will immediately be removed from their post. Vijay never encourages such activities.

How do you let Vijay know about your welfare activities?

Vijay meets his fans at least 30 to 40 times a year. He meets them in batches of 500 or sometimes even 1000. He casually poses for photos with 500 people for 4 hours straight. He inquires about every single person. As a district head, I might talk to him for 10 minutes and during that visit, we show him the photos of our welfare activities. Whenever we meet him, he advises us to take care of our family first before getting into welfare activities.