Thalapathy Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam has quietly built a backroom team of ex-bureaucrats and technocrats to manage outreach and negotiations across Tamil Nadu’s fragmented political landscape. These figures, less visible than the star himself, are central to conversations with Dravidian majors, smaller caste outfits, and district-level influencers. Former IRS officer K G Arunraj, now General Secretary for Policy and Propaganda, is at the core of this effort, leveraging his administrative experience, network in the revenue and enforcement ecosystem, and comfort with data-driven profiling of constituencies to structure issue-based talks rather than personality-driven bargaining. Around him are retired officials and legal-judicial hands who bring procedural knowledge, help draft “acceptable” common minimum understandings, and reassure wary parties that TVK will not be an improvisational one-man show. This technocratic-bureaucratic layer gives TVK credibility in negotiations on seats, alliances, and post-poll cooperation, while allowing Vijay to remain the public face and final arbiter. For established parties, these ex-officials serve as a familiar, rules-literate interface with a disruptive new entrant.