It was sometime in the beginning of 2002 that a huge election rally had been organised by the then ruling Congress in Channapatna for the byelections to the erstwhile Kanakapura Lok Sabha seat. It was a high-profile contest with Janata Dal (Secular) leader H.D. Deve Gowda and Congress leader D.K. Shivakumar taking on each other.

Congress top leaders, including Chief Minister S.M. Krishna and actor-and-politician M.H. Ambareesh, were on stage. Mr. Krishna, the suave politician, was making a fervent appeal to the people to support his party in the bypolls, when suddenly a die-hard fan of Ambareesh managed to reach close to the dais.

Unmindful of the fact that Mr. Krishna is still speaking, the fan loudly greeted Ambareesh with “Namskaara Ambreeshannange”. Though irritated, Mr. Krishna paused with a smile, as he could not afford to snub him at an election rally. But the fan continued to create nuisance.

Ambareesh stood up angrily and rained the choicest of abuses at the top of his voice and asked the fan to shut up. For a moment, there was tension in the air. But the fan and others in the crowd gave him a thunderous applause and whistled. The fan even saluted him and sat down. Using abuses had become a signature style of “affectionate” communication for this actor and his fans seemed to love it. He did not spare even his friends irrespective of their social status.

The actor had revealed an incident to media in which one of his fans, who called on his landline, did not believe that he was talking to Ambareesh when he greeted in a “decent” manner with a “Hello, how are you?” But when the fan called him repeatedly, Ambareesh lost his cool and rained abuses. It was then that the fan was happy, and said: “Now it is confirmed that I’m speaking to Ambreeshanna!”