The rise of brand Anna!

Social activist Anna Hazare has become our new superhero! The 74-year-old Maharashtrian, who made a buzz with the Jan Lokpal Bill, has not only become the face of anti-corruption crusade but a brand that people, sans age bar, are conforming to.

The septuagenarian and his anti-corruption messages are being celebrated in popular culture, and how!

Gandhi caps have been revived like never before. T-shirts with bold messages emblazoned on them are becoming popular among the youth. A popular T-shirt brand has launched a new collection based on Anna and his fight against corruption. Kashyap Dalal, co-founder and CEO of the company, says, “There’s a significant rise in awareness amongst the people regarding corruption. With Anna’s movement, there is a shift from a sense of resignation to activism against rampant corruption by politicians. We launched our first T-shirt capturing this in April... it was a runaway success and we started getting demands for reprinting it,” he says. Another youth T-shirt brand has also launched a special Anna range.

Meanwhile, music band Motherjane has saluted the Anna revolution by releasing its new single No Contest written by the frontman Suraj mani. Says Suraj, “Anna has become more than pop culture, he has become part of rock culture with our new song No Contest deicated to him.”

And beat this, Anna could even be giving a hard time to the unbeatable superstar Rajnikanth what with Anna SMSes doing the rounds. Social networking sites are abuzz with virtual support.

Filmmakers are in talks of making movies on him. And guess what? Anna is even the theme for most of the pandals for the upcoming Ganesh festival.