Actor-turned-politician and Jana Sena Party president Pawan Kalyan announced long ago that he had quit acting and taken to full-time politics.
But people still acknowledge him as an actor from the Mega family, rather than politician. If people across the world are still interested in attending his meetings notwithstanding his humiliating electoral debacle, it is only because of their craze for his films.
Probably, Pawan also wants to cash in on this craze among his fans for his films, So, like any other popular actor, he has started demanding money for his public appearances.
The other day, the Jana Sena Party chief attended a session at the annual convention of Telugu Association of North America at Washington D.C. as a special guest.
The session was well attended by Telugu NRIs in big numbers and there was a huge response for his speech.
So far so good. Since he is a full-time politician now, rather than a film celebrity, one might have thought he had attended the TANA convention like any other guest. But, sources said it was a paid appearance by Pawan Kalyan.
Apparently, Pawan Kalyan had charged US dollars 50,000 for attending the TANA convention, apart from the first class air ticket and other facilities. The “appearance fee” is said to be in the name of party fund, sources said.
But what would TANA gain by paying such a huge money to Pawan Kalyan, a failed politician?
It is learnt TANA organisers had collected entry fee for Pawan’s session and since there is still a lot of craze for him among the NRIs, the organisers made a quick buck from the entry tickets to make up for the expenses on the power star!