‘Mallu Arjun’ – Malayali fans’ adoration for Allu Arjun reaches fever pitch as the release of ‘Pushpa 2’ draws close

It is fascinating to listen to Malayali fans talk about what the Telugu actor Allu Arjun means to them. For them, ‘Allu ettan’ or ‘Mallu Arjun’ is an ‘emotion’, a ‘personification of hope’, ‘positive energy’, he is ‘courage’ and, above all, he is all that is fun about the movies — the song, the dance, the stunts — the spectacle that is cinema. With the release of Pushpa 2 – The Rule just a day away, excitement has reached fever pitch. 

The fans endearingly and reverentially refer to the actor as ettan, the abbreviated form of chettan (older brother). “It is a form of respect and that is what he is to us. We have grown up watching his films…he is a ‘brother-figure’ to us!” says each one of the fans.  

Sujith Thomas aka Allu Sujith, wears his adoration on his skin, literally. With 32-odd tattoos that proclaim his devotion — five portraits and the rest iterations of Arjun’s name — Allu, Arjun, Mallu Arjun — Sujith is no ordinary fan. There is not an inch of vacant space on his walls either, he jokes. While the rest of the world may see him as a ‘crazy fan’, it is more than “hero worship or being drawn to his stardom”.

“It is an emotional bond. People reduce our [fans] feelings to foolishness. But it is no different from looking up to someone, only that our role model happens to be an actor. I have become a better person because of it,” Sujith, 29, says over the phone from his home in Sulthan Bathery. He is preparing for his Public Service Commission (PSC) exam. 

Sujith travelled to Kochi on November 27, when the actor came to Kochi as part of the Pushpa 2 promotional tour. “I may not be able to get anywhere near him but it does not matter. Being in the same place as Allu ettan and catching a glimpse is enough,” says Sujith before the event. 

Meanwhile, another avid fan, Bengaluru-based Arjun VC, 33, did not come for the event “so that other fans would get a chance to meet Allu ettan.” He last saw the actor six years ago. “I have seen him a few times, in Kerala and Hyderabad,” says Arjun, who works in the IT sector. Because of his name and his being a fan, Arjun is also referred to as Allu Arjun. Allu is a prefix of choice among fans. 

Allu Arjun is probably the only non-Malayali actor who has around 500-odd fan club units (local) in Kerala. For the release of Pushpa 2, 100-odd fan shows [special shows for fans on the release day] have been planned across the State. The first show of the day, on December 5, will be at 4 am. 

The event in Kochi had fans thronging the airport while the event in Grand Hyatt, Bolgatty, was controlled. The actor’s team co-ordinates fan interactions during promotional tours, keeping a tight watch on the number of people visiting. The team is also fairly accessible to fans associations, to get in touch with the team and organise ‘fan visits’ to Hyderabad.  

One of Sujith’s 32 Allu Arjun tattoos
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Fans like Sujith are spoken of with awe by the others. But Sujith dismisses the suggestion. “I can’t claim to be the ‘bigger fan’. Each person feels differently, we cannot measure and compare the intensity of feelings. For instance, there is Melvin who is wheelchair-bound… that does not hold him back. You should see his energy at an event for Allu ettan or the films. He dances and enjoys himself. Allu ettan is very important to us in ways others may not comprehend!” says Sujith.

Life lessons via films

Melvin TS from Paravoor near Kottarakkara is a lottery ticket seller. Melvin says, “Allu ettan’s movies have life lessons for me. In them, he is brave in the face of challenges; he takes on every curveball with a smile. More than that, I have tremendous respect for him.” 

The first Allu Arjun movie Melvin watched was Happy as a school kid, it left such an impression on him that he says he felt he could do anything and nothing could hold him back. “In Happy, for example, he is chill and does not get frazzled. It was cool to see that as a kid,” he says. 

For Sujith, who was born with a cleft palate and lip, the actor is the brother he never had. Someone who would protect him from the bullying that he had to deal with growing up. “I fervently, desperately hoped for someone like him in my life,” he says. 

“I had zero confidence and low self-esteem. I was angry and frustrated at being made fun of and bullied. Growing up with my condition was hard. My parents had my back but, sometimes, that was not enough. You can’t tell your parents everything. Some of the stuff would be unnerving for them too. That is when I wished for an older brother. I have an elder sister, but it is not the same,” Sujith adds. 

The 2004 movie Arya was the life-changer for Sujith who was around 10 when he watched the film for the first time in 2006, “it was a CD”. He saw a ‘brotherly figure’; he found Arya could be a cool elder brother, the kind who would protect him. “I started ‘talking’ to him. Sharing things with him… today psychiatrists talk of journaling as a supplementing therapy. Watching Allu ettan’s films, content about him… is soothing for me. It is a harmless habit, unlike drugs or alcohol. I am a very different person now, I am alive because of Allu ettan.”  

For Melvin every Allu Arjun release is a cause for celebration. Although he has not travelled to Jubilee Hills in Hyderabad, to meet the ‘Icon Star’, he did get to meet him when the actor came to Alappuzha for the Nehru Trophy Boat Race in 2018. “I met him, got a photograph with him…that is enough for me!” 

Arjun with Allu Arjun
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Arjun had no clue who Allu Arjun was when he first watched Happy in the late 2000s. He did not know that it was a Telugu actor in a Telugu movie. “I watched the Malayalam dubbed movie on a CD, in a loop, oblivious to who the actor was. I liked it a lot. There were songs, dance, fight sequences…it was all very different from the films [Malayalam] I was watching,” he says. This was in 2007, a couple of years after the movie’s theatre release. 

A bucket list of Allu things

The more Allu Arjun movies he watched, the more he got hooked. He even had a bucket list of Allu things to do such as watch his films, meet him, get a photograph with him, be part of a film … “I have done most of them…” he says with a dash of pride.

Around the same time Fasil Mannarkkad, 27, from Mannarkkad, Palakkad, also ‘discovered’ the actor. He was in Class VII. “I did not know that he was a Telugu actor when I watched Arya in 2008. I was crazy about him,” says the theatre operator. For him, Allu Arjun is an emotion. Learning that he was not a Malayali did not affect his adoration. 

The only problem was when he heard the actor’s voice for the first time in an original film. “Jis Joy is Allu ettan’s voice for me. It is hard to imagine someone else as his voice,” he says laughing.  

Fasil Mannarkkad with the actor
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As Malayalam dubbed versions of Allu Arjun films were being released in the mid-2000s, most of these fans, then kids, thought they were watching Malayalam films. It was much later that they learnt that the actor was not a Malayali. By the time they found out, they were converts. A few of them now watch the movies in Telugu rather than the dubbed version.  

Arjun says he was one of the first fans from Kerala to get on Twitter actively tweeting about Allu Arjun back in 2013. “Bunny [Allu Arjun] came on Twitter only in 2015,” says Arjun. This put him in touch with other fans across state borders and led him to work on social media promotions in Kerala. By then he had learnt who the actor was. 

“By 2009 I learnt everything about him online. I even started promoting him on platforms such as Facebook. Around 2010, I got on Twitter [now known as X] and began tweeting about Allu ettan, I was one of the first fans to do that from Kerala.” 

At one point, he was managing 25-odd Malayalam Facebook pages dedicated to the actor. He was involved with the Malayalam promotions on social media during the release of films such as Son of Satyamurthy, Iddarammayilatho [Romeo and Juliets in Malayalam], and Race Gurram [Lucky the Racer] among others. 

He went to meet the star in 2015 and the next time, three years later in 2018. That year Arjun got his first tattoo. 

“He meets so many fans daily. There is no way he would have remembered me when I met him for the second time after three years. But he did. He asked ‘Haven’t we met before?’ I could not believe it, I was so happy that I headed straight to a tattoo place and got one with his name. It is not to show off but to commemorate my happiness that he remembered me,” says Arjun. 

Allu Arjun and Rashmika Mandanna in Kochi for ‘Pushpa 2’ promotions
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Special Arrangment

Each of these fans has a deeply personal, often emotional connection with the actor. At a trying point in their life, they say, his movies gave them hope and helped them cope with challenges. Most of these fans are affiliated to one of the several ‘fans’ associations’. Sujith is a member of All Kerala Allu Arjun Fans and Welfare (AFWA), while Fasil is a member of Allu Arjun Army (Kerala). 

Their devotion begs the question — is there a Malayalam actor they adore as much?  

The answers are versions of “No, I don’t feel that way about any Malayalam actor.” 

However, it is not all adoration for the ‘Icon Star’. There are ‘complaints’ as fans wish that there were more Allu Arjun releases to look forward to. “Look at the Tamil actor Vijay; fans have a movie to look forward to every year or so. We wish there were more releases so that we could see more of him,” says someone who does not want to be named. “Though I am an ardent fan, the others might see this as me being disloyal!”

There is a danger with this kind of adoration — obsession. Sujith agrees that he was dangerously close to obsession. “And when something changes into an obsession, it causes unwelcome changes in one’s character. I did not want that for myself. Allu Sirish, Allu ettan’s younger brother, cautioned me against it when I went to Hyderabad in 2018. He told me to be careful about getting obsessed and told me not to spend too much time just on Allu ettan,”he says.