As the face of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK), Vijay gets the loudest cheers. But if the party’s stunning win in the recent Tamil Nadu Assembly elections transformed him from film superstar into a formidable political force, it also unveiled a second line of TVK figures, who now move through crowds with their own aura of celebrity and salience. Together, they form something Tamil Nadu politics has rarely seen before: a party leadership assembled not from traditional district satraps or dynastic heirs, but from fan club organisers, consultants, ex-bureaucrats, digital combatants and public communicators. Around Vijay, they are developing a political ecosystem that seems less like the cadre-heavy Dravidian formations and more like a hybrid force of cinema, social media, branding and emotional identification. For the TVK is born as much in the party office as among the crowd selfies.…