Suresh Gopi: The actor who took movie set to politics | LME 96 | Pooja Prasanna

A man walks into a system drowning in corruption.

He’s angry, he’s righteous — he’s a one-man army.

He lectures ministers, slaps goons, and walks away in slow motion while explosions go off behind him.

You’ve seen this movie before.

In fact, if you’ve grown up in Kerala, you’ve probably watched it many times, starring one man — Suresh Gopi.

From the no-nonsense cop Bharathchandran IPS in Commissioner to the fiery journalist in Pathram, Suresh Gopi wasn’t just acting. 

He was an institution of fury, a one-man morality play.

His monologues could probably register on the Richter scale.

But in 2024, the man who once roasted politicians on screen- managed a coup- and walked away with a historic political win.

Thrissur, Kerala’s cultural capital, elected its first-ever BJP MP.

And it wasn’t because voters suddenly developed a taste for Hindutva. 

It was mostly because of him. The man, the myth, the meme — Suresh Gopi.

Except, let’s be honest. Politician or not, he never really left the movies. He just took the set with him.

Because in his mind, he’s still that righteous officer.

Only now, the “villains” in the story... are journalists asking questions.

He’s not serving as an MP — he’s performing as one.

Last year, he even said he was ready to “become Bharathchandran in real life” if the public wanted. And it looks like he meant it.

In one recent video, he’s wearing a shirt printed with his own face — or rather, Bharathchandran IPS’s.

It’s almost poetic. Because behind the theatrics — behind the memes, the mass dialogues, and the macho posturing — there’s a serious political story.

One about how a fading superstar found new life in saffron, 

how he has marked the media as his antagonists and treats politics mostly like a big feudal system- where no one can ask questions. 

Let me explain.

But first, let me remind you.

Out here, there’s no Bharathchandran IPS — just reporters asking questions that need answers.

That’s our job. To investigate, to question, and sometimes, to face a little fury for doing it.

So if you want journalism to keep asking uncomfortable questions, subscribe to The News Minute today.

Now, let’s be fair. Suresh Gopi’s win wasn’t some overnight miracle.

The BJP had been trying to crack the state for years.

Kerala, with its strong Left legacy, cadre-based Congress party and a powerful secular streak, just didn’t bite.

Suresh Gopi showed up with something the BJP had been missing — emotional currency.

Because before he was a candidate, he was a giver.

The actor’s philanthropy had quietly built a reputation that politicians could only dream of.

Through his trusts, he funded surgeries, built homes, arranged weddings, and provided relief for those left behind by the system.

So when he asked for votes, the people of Thrissur didn’t just see a politician.

They also saw a charitable man — the star who cried at funerals, the benefactor who built homes, the hero who always, somehow, came through.

The BJP built his campaign around that image — not ideology. The saffron was secondary.

Even before the polls, while he was a Rajya Sabha member, Suresh Gopi delivered quite a few headlines.

There was the “kaineettam” controversy — when he distributed small Vishu gifts from his car, letting people touch his feet as he handed out coins. 

Critics called it tone-deaf and feudal. He said it was tradition.

Just weeks before the Lok Sabha elections, a video went viral — of him scolding his own party workers for the low turnout at a campaign event.

Anyway, he won with over 400,000 votes, beating both the Congress and the CPI, and doing what the BJP had been dreaming of since the 1980s.

But then came the first plot twist - he didn’t want to be a minister.

He simply wanted to finish his movies. And maybe sign more projects.

It was almost as a punishment that he was made a Minister of State Petroleum and Natural Gas 

And ever since that- Suresh Gopi has always been in the news

A comment suggesting that “upper-caste” ministers should handle tribal welfare drew heavy backlash and a hasty clarification.

Then the incident in Thrissur, where he rudely  turned away an elderly man’s petition, saying, “This isn’t even the MP’s job.”

And another, when he snapped at an elderly woman during a public event: “Chechi, don’t talk too much.” 

Even his election win in Thrissur hasn’t escaped controversy.

A local court has sought a police report on allegations that Suresh Gopi and his family engaged in illegal voting, casting ballots in Thrissur despite being registered in Thiruvananthapuram. 

Thrissur is one of the constituencies where Congress and the Left allege ‘vote chori’ happened.

And like many other parachuted politicians Suresh Gopi has also faced complaints from his own constituents that he’s “missing” — literally. 

The Kerala Students Union even filed a tongue-in-cheek “missing person” complaint, saying their MP hadn’t been seen in Thrissur in months.

It’s telling that to this day, he still refers to voters — not as citizens, but as his “praja” or “subjects”

And if there’s one group that’s felt the full force of his Commissioner-era temper, it’s the media.

Suresh Gopi’s tryst with the media — especially with women journalists — has been one of the more troubling chapters in his new career.

It probably began when a case was registered against him in Kozhikode, after a female journalist accused him of behaving inappropriately during a press meet.

Looking at the video of that incident, what stands out is his body language.

Like a gesture that said, “Settle down.”

Even his apology later carried the same tone — he was sorry only because she felt bad, not because he thought he’d done anything wrong.

At another press meet, when cornered by a different female journalist about the same incident, Suresh Gopi joked with a male journalist nearby — asking if he could put his hand on his shoulder.

When the woman questioned this behaviour, he turned on her instantly.

“Don’t you dare show off!” he said, refusing to continue until she was asked to leave.

Later when he was summoned by the police to give his statement in the journalist’s complaint, he didn’t go alone.

An entourage of supporters accompanied him to the station — as if it were another mass entry scene.

In recent months, Suresh Gopi has managed to pick fights with many in the media.

During a campaign in Wayanad, he referred to the Waqf Board as a “four-lettered monstrosity” and that the Union government would “pull out its spine.”

When a 24 News reporter later asked him about the backlash, Suresh Gopi summoned him in person and threatened him saying “I’ll show you in Parliament!” 

Then, there was the Thrissur episode.

When asked about the Hema Committee report — which investigated sexual harassment in Malayalam cinema — Suresh Gopi lost his temper again.

He shoved aside a reporter from MediaOne, snapped “My way is my right,” and stormed off.

Each of these moments has chipped away at the line between the actor and the minister.

You get the feeling that somewhere along the way, Suresh Gopi stopped playing the righteous officer — and started being him.

And when he looks at the press, he doesn’t see accountability — he sees antagonists.

And every press conference becomes another confrontation scene.

It’s hard to see this hostility as accidental, because it plays out like political theatre.

The “mass hero” persona now positions journalists as the new villains — nosy, disrespectful, out to smear him.

It’s just disappointing. 

Because Kerala’s media culture — however messy or problematic — has long been central to the state’s democratic fabric.

And when a sitting Union Minister treats it like a prop, the line between reel and real doesn’t just blur — it breaks.

But to understand the Suresh Gopi phenomenon, you have to see the broader plot.

It’s about the BJP’s long, slow script for Kerala 

Thrissur wasn’t just any seat.

It’s where faith and culture meet politics — a city where large temple poorams, churches, and mosques coexist within a few streets.

And in that melting pot, the BJP saw its best chance not in ideology, but in iconography.

Who better than a superstar — someone who could bypass political divides and appeal to emotion, nostalgia, and pride?

Suresh Gopi, in a sense, became the BJP’s pilot project: the proof that saffron politics could enter Kerala through sentiment, not sermons.

And it worked — for now.

But you can’t govern with star power alone.

The cracks are already showing.

His public outbursts have turned into memes.

And his political presence in Delhi remains… well, let’s just say, not exactly blockbuster material.

In Parliament, he’s made few interventions.

Even his party colleagues have understood that the man’s temper, after all, doesn’t retire with age.

While the bjp could get a victory- these daily controversies are not auguring well

For suggestions and feedbacks write to lme@thenewsminute.com 

TNM-NL’s Deepavali offer - https://pages.razorpay.com/deepavali25

Produced by Megha Mukundan, edited by Nikhil Sekhar ET, script & research by Lakshmi Priya, camera by Ajay R