evidence: Posing to engage: The next phase of celebrity engagement, in the last phase of campaigning, saw Modi pose alongside a number of film stars, with no explicit endorsement from them. Such celebrity engagement included a kite-flying session with Salman Khan, and casual meetings with Rajinikanth, Vijay, and a number of southern film stars, a region where the BJP was particularly weak. Indeed, some of these actors, including Salman and Vijay, explicitly noted that they were not endorsing Modi—Salman even said he would vote for a Congress party candidate. However, the willingness of the celebrities to pose alongside Modi and Modi’s willingness to engage with them suggests a two-way acknowledgement of each other’s’ importance. Posing and tweeting with southern film stars, Modi undercut the idea that the BJP was largely a northern party, and likewise tweeting favourably about Muslim public figures including Abdul Kalam, Salman Khan, A R Rahman, and Sania Mirza undercut suggestions of Modi’s anti-secular credentials.