May 6, 2024, 01:56 PM IST

Indian stars who quit acting to enter politics

Abhimanyu Mathur

Thalapathy Vijay has announced that he will be quitting films after his next to focus on his political career

MG Ramachandran, the legendary screen icon, left films in the early 80s for politics and served as the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu for 10 years

Once a top heroine, Jayalalithaa followed MGR into politics, quitting films in 1980, and become CM of Tamil Nadu herself

Bollywood star Sunil Dutt took a long break from films in the early 90s, later becoming a Union Minister in Manmohan Singh’s cabinet

A top actress in the 80s, Jayaprada left films in 1996 after she became a Rajya Sabha MP, eventually winning a Lok Sabha election too in 2004

In 2007, Telugu superstar Chiranjeevi halted his film career, launching his own party and contesting Assembly Elections

The highest-paid TV actress of her time, Smriti Irani left showbiz in 2009, becoming an MP and Cabinet Minister

Vijayakanth was a top star in Tamil cinema until he stopped accepting films in 2011 as he became an MLA

Divya Spandana aka Ramya worked in Kannada cinema before leaving films in 2012 to join the Congress and contested Lok Sabha elections twice

Next: Then and now photos of 80s' actresses who ruled Bollywood