A growing number of Instagram Reels portraying Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) chief Joseph Vijay as a national political leader are originating from and circulating across Hindi-speaking states, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. A recent investigation by Instagram content creator Dinesh Kumar has alleged that at least some of this promotional content is being paid for, with one influencer reportedly demanding ₹75,000 for a single Reel and a story.
The claims have raised questions over whether TVK is using an organised influencer network to build Vijay’s image outside Tamil Nadu, including through videos that allegedly present false or misleading claims about his political record.
We had already covered how Hindi-speaking influencers on Instagram have been promoting Joseph Vijay as the next PM candidate. These reels look entirely staged and feature people (posing as random public) who look totally unaware of who Vijay even is.
According to Dinesh Kumar, he has been tracking such Reels for around ten days and found more than a hundred videos portraying Vijay as having travelled to Delhi’s Jantar Mantar to participate in protests against NEET and express solidarity with protesting students.
The videos, he claimed, have collectively generated millions of views, with some individual Reels reportedly reaching tens of millions of views.
It is a fact that Vijay did not visit Jantar Mantar to participate in such a protest. Instead, he pointed to the TVK government’s action against students in Tamil Nadu who protested in solidarity with the NEET agitation.
He also questioned the contrast between the extensive social media promotion of Vijay and his alleged silence following the NEET question paper leak and the subsequent decision to conduct a re-examination, which became a major issue in Tamil Nadu.
₹75,000 For One Reel?
The most striking allegation concerns the money allegedly being offered to influencers.
Dinesh said he approached an influencer after seeing a Reel promoting Vijay and presented himself as being from a PR company looking to commission similar promotional content.
According to screenshots of the conversation, the influencer quoted ₹75,000 for one Reel and one story, saying she could reduce the amount to ₹65,000 but would not go below that figure.
Another influencer quoted ₹20,000 for a Reel.
In another conversation cited by Dinesh, an influencer reportedly indicated that she had been paid around ₹60,000 for a similar Vijay-related video and said she was open to continuing such work until the next Parliament election.
The allegations become more significant because the content being promoted is not limited to generic fan videos. Influencers are circulating claims portraying Vijay as having taken money from temple hundis and distributed it to schools, colleges, hospitals and poor people in one instance.
One such Reel accumulated around 80 million views and 5.77 million likes, while another influencer allegedly reused the same footage and received more than 15 million views.
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If such content is being paid for, the question is not merely about social-media marketing. It is about the deliberate manufacture and distribution of political narratives to audiences who may have little knowledge of Tamil Nadu politics.
Who Is Paying For The Campaign?
The biggest unanswered question is the source of the payments.
If influencers with hundreds of thousands or millions of followers are being paid tens of thousands of rupees for individual Reels promoting Vijay, the scale of the campaign could become substantial if thousands of influencers are involved.
The screenshots and allegations raise a question the party should address: Who is funding these political promotions, how much is being spent, and what exactly are influencers being instructed to promote?
Political parties routinely use social media and influencers for campaigning. There is nothing unusual about political communication online. The concern arises when paid political content is presented as organic public opinion or when demonstrably false claims are used to construct a leader’s image.
If influencers are being paid to manufacture that enthusiasm and particularly if they are being paid to circulate false claims: is Vijay’s national image being built by voters, or by a paid propaganda machinery operating behind the scenes?
From Fabricated Claims To ‘Vijay Thalapathy Next PM’ Vox Pops
We had earlier reported on what appeared to be a meticulously orchestrated social-media operation to project Joseph Vijay as a future Prime Minister, involving Route Media and Aadhav Arjuna’s Voice of Commons. That campaign also evolved into a more sophisticated format: staged “vox pop” videos filmed across India.
The videos follow an almost identical template, asking people in cities such as Varanasi and Mumbai who they want as the next Prime Minister, with respondents invariably choosing “Vijay Thalapathy” over Narendra Modi. Some clips even portray Vijay as a better Chief Minister than Yogi Adityanath, with such videos emerging from Uttar Pradesh itself.
Several of these handles openly advertise “DM for paid collab” or “DM for paid promotions” on their profiles. The videos are then packaged with Hindi songs, “NEXT PM” graphics and overwhelmingly positive comments, creating the appearance of spontaneous nationwide support.
The question is whether these are genuine public sentiments or a paid perception-management campaign designed to manufacture them.
Building Vijay’s Image Outside Tamil Nadu
The campaign already seems to be influencing perceptions of Vijay outside Tamil Nadu, with people in northern India repeating claims about free LPG cylinders, free hospital treatment and encounters ordered by Vijay’s government. Videos asking viewers to choose between Rahul Gandhi, Narendra Modi and Vijay as the next Prime Minister have also circulated widely.
From misleading claims about his role in the NEET protests and temple hundis to staged-looking “Vijay Next PM” vox pops, the messaging appears designed to create an image of nationwide support. The key question is whether this popularity is organic—or being manufactured through a coordinated, paid influencer campaign.
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