Heated spats, trolling and even violence in rare cases – we’ve seen this and more from fans of Tollywood actors Junior NTR and Mahesh Babu.
Now, however, the fan clubs seem to have taken the rivalry to a whole other level – in a way that has left foreigners and some Indians feeling very, very confused.
Hollywood actor Tom Cruise recently posted a few photos from his upcoming Mission Impossible instalment. And in the comments section, a rather baffling sequence of events ensued.
If you were to read the comments, you’d think Mahesh fans are heaping praises on their star and saying he’s better than Tom Cruise. That he’s the real action star. That he’s just better in every way.
“our tollywood mahesh babu is ultra stylish compared to you tom (sic),” reads the top comment. “Don't ever DRM of matching our tollywood mahesh babu in acting and stunts okay..u can't reach his mass fan base ever..Indian superstar (sic),” reads another.
But look a little closer, at the commenters’ profiles perhaps, and you’ll realise that what’s happening here is a whole other ballgame.
The majority of fans people praising Mahesh are actually … trolling him. Because, no points for guessing, they are Junior NTR fans! And this is their idea of sarcasm, we suppose.
For instance, a Facebook user called AbhiRam Abhi who wrote that Tom Cruise wasn’t as good as Mahesh Babu and should watch his films Aagadu, Dookudu and Spyder, describes himself as ‘NTR CULT’ on his profile.
Of course, once Mahesh Babu fans realised what was happening, they soon came to the post to ‘praise’ (troll) NTR.
Oh and, you can find the odd Pawan Kalyan fan in between too.
For instance, a user by the name of Arjun Kalyan wrote that Tom Cruise couldn’t even dream of matching up to Mahesh in terms of stunts or reaching his fan base. His profile however, describes him from a “PSPK (Power Star Pawan Kalyan) Cult”.
South Indian movie fandoms are on another level only...
— Sahil Rizwan (@SahilRiz) February 2, 2018
From what I gather, fans of actor NTR are trolling fans of actor Mahesh Babu on actor TOM CRUISE's FB posts, because Mahesh Babu is known as the "Tom Cruise of Tollywood"*?
(*citation required) https://t.co/zwWF3GRnQc pic.twitter.com/U1irlhdVLB
In this display of rivalry though, poor Tom Cruise’s post has been overtaken by these Tollywood fan clubs and left foreigners feeling rather… confused.