What's Vijay doing in the Kodambakkam strike?

The FEFSI strike has almost crippled the functioning of Tamil film industry. Barring a few film events, no film shoots whatsoever are happening in and around Chennai because of the non-cooperation extended by the film workers. So what are our actors doing these days? A fair enough question to ask. While some are shrewd enough to conduct shootings outside Chennai - Vikram's Thandavam is progressing in Delhi and Ajith's Billa 2 is being wrapped up in Hyderabad, others are enjoying their vacation. Some though, like Mysskin, are traveling to places like the Czech Republic for production works including composing music.

But what is Vijay doing? Vijay being Vijay and with his interests in interacting with fans, he is on a whirlwind tour to promote the Vijay brand. He is meeting his fans in and around Tamil Nadu in far flung districts like Madurai, Kovai and Ramanathapuram. His fan meets have earned a reputation of gathering up a lot of crowd and is attracting fans in huge numbers. Accesskollywood.com is covering Vijay's tour district by district in news coverage and it shows that Vijay is increasingly touring to the hinterlands of Tamil Nadu.

His Thuppakki, however, is on hold and Murugadoss has announced that he has no plans to bring the project to life until the strike is completely over and everything in Kodambakkam grumbles back to life. This has indeed provided Vijay an opportunity to get up close with his fans and he is cashing in on it big time. Vijay's tours are also peppered with distribution of alms and launch of other social welfare activities. Now that's a clever way to build a portfolio to become a people-friendly actor, who has aspirations in politics!

• Simbu in the Shruti and Dhanush angle!