While most Hindi movie stars aligned themselves with one or the other political party, the two popular villains, Sadashiv Amrapurkar and Nilu Phule, along with popular actor Shriram Lagoo, who is known for his memorable character roles, charted a different political path for themselves. They undertook a journey to many villages in rural Maharashtra, essentially telling the people what not to vote for.

They interacted with people without much fanfare and cautioned them against the dangers of communalism, corruption and growing political apathy among the masses. Generally seen as progressive, these actors are known for their stance against communalism, corruption and economic deprivation of people.

``We had gone to educate, but came back educated,'' Amrapurkar said on his return from a week-long tour.Amrapurkar said the rural electorate wanted a right to reject candidates. ``They want a column on the ballot paper, which can be stamped to reject all the candidates,'' he said.

Many villages were against undue concessions being given to multinational corporations like Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Enron by successive governments. According to Amrapurkar, the people favoured a compulsory retirement age for politicians. They must retire when they can't perform due to age, he insisted. Most people wanted corruption cases against ministers to be expedited and publicised.

The initiative taken by the three actors has received much appreciation from the intelligentsia. Some commentators said the role the three played was in direct contrast to what some young film stars had done by allowing themselves to be used by various politicians for pulling in crowds.

Many stars who paraded with politicians soliciting votes on the streets of Mumbai and Delhi were themselves politically illiterate, said writer and politicalobserver Nilu Damle. ``I don't know why these young actors are so vulnerable,'' he said.

Academicians stress on the need to encourage a dialogue with the masses on issues pertaining to the Indian political system. The mainstream political parties have of late stopped educating the masses on important issues, said noted historian Y D Phadke. He said most parties activate their cadre only during the elections. The same cadres are not used for interacting with the masses for creating a larger political awareness, he added.