I do an hour of yoga every day, and that keeps me fit enough to campaign at this pace door-to-door," explains Nag, 55, who walks into every single home on a street that he enters.

He runs up flights of stairs without panting, walks into living spaces as if they belonged to his best friends. If they invite him to sit down for a while, he sits on a chair, unselfconsciously pulls a comb out of his pocket and whisks it through the hair falling onto his forehead.

Everywhere, he is greeted by warm smiles and handshakes. The fact that he is a popular actor helps him break the ice at once. Autograph books are popped out, and he signs them with a flourish. As soon as he spots children, he pulls them towards him and asks, "Kis class mein pad rahi ho, beti (or beta)?"

Nag has traditionally been known to be a hit with the women, and he always makes it point to walk up to women as they buy tomatoes, cook biryani or wash clothes. He wears long, dark-coloured kurtas that he says his wife picked out for him, and an angavastra around his neck.

As he walks into a mosque, he quickly covers his head with the neck cloth. In a temple, it is around his neck, and he is reciting shlokas with the priest.

"You want to vote for that Run-Chhod Das, Krishna the coward, who has run away from the battlefield in his own hometown, Maddur?" demands film star Nag, sending his audience of slum dwellers into fits of giggles.

There are 94,614 voters in the constituency. Of these, around 25,000 people live in more than 10 slums in the constituency. Apart from slum dwellers, there are around 17,000 Muslim voters and an equal number of weavers, who are largely Tamil.

Photograph: M D Riti