Search

This article demonstrates how new media technologies remediate traditional cinematic modes of stardom, specifically in and through small towns in India. Through two case studies, it explores registers of stardom that have emerged through the short video sharing app TikTok – both on the platform and in its filmic renditions. The first case looks at the cinematic construct of a TikTok star, which fuels the formal and narrative force of the 2019 film Bala (dir. Amar Kaushik). Bala illustrates how cinema can self-reflexively interweave traditional tropes with new media technologies. The second case features a 'real-life' TikTok star and political aspirant who brings into focus the political and electoral valence of TikTok stardom in the town of Adampur, Haryana. The cinematic is central to this narrative, where cinephilic nostalgia indicates a shared cultural intimacy between the political candidate and her followers and helps further her political ambitions. While the real TikTok star, Sonali Phogat, directly addresses her constituency, lip-syncing to old movie songs in 15-second videos, her reel counterparts pay homage to their cine-ancestors, 15 seconds at a time. In a setting where 'the star' has traditionally been understood through the prism of cinema, this article brings to light shifting registers invoked through the platformisation of the star and the cinematic in small town India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the film Pathaan, at the time of its release in 2023, was read in terms of its overt political messaging and against the backdrop of a majoritarian political culture, this article sees Pathaan's political work as more subterranean. Pathaan functions as a kind of memory box connecting viewers through a web of sensed memories, which I call caramel connections, of cinema and their unspoken connections and implications of heterogeneity. The film's self-aware engagement is with both the history and the memory of an older Bollywood cinema: its earnestness, its disinterest in aesthetics and politics of realism claims the space of popular culture as political outside the binaries of left and right. Shah Rukh Khan is a star who has functioned as an emotive vehicle for transitional moments in India. What kind of transitional moment do Pathaan and Khan see themselves as travelling through? [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay addresses the intersection between the Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Tik-Tok and Pinterest social media platforms and a contemporary religious leader/teacher who exploited them to rise from subalternity to the status of a deified celebrity. It examines his underprivileged disciples and followers and rival formal and informal levels, within Indian Sufi circles. Employing a combined perspective of ethnography, media studies and textual analysis, I discuss the transformations engendered by this social media celebrity and the impact of neo-liberalism on religious teacher–disciple (peeri–mureedi) relations. I show that this transformation involved a commodification of peeri–mureedi relations, leading to a neoliberal morphing of religious practices into marketable products. In so doing, I provide a critical reading of Mazzarella's social media as "re-enlightened" or "inclusive capitalism" that gives voice, agency and new economic possibilities to capitalism's most marginal subjects, who aspire to break the grip of what I term the "economies of despair". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article considers the release of Siamak Yasemi's 1965 commercial Iranian hit Qarun's Treasure in the context of Iranian cinema's historic and competitive relationship with Egyptian and Indian cinemas in the mid-twentieth century. I trace the development of a national cinema industry in Iran through sound practice in order to demonstrate that fīlmfārsī was born out of its sonic and material connections to the film industries in the Middle East and South Asia. Through a focus on sound and industry, my article expands Iranian cinema historiography beyond national frameworks and methods of textual analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For popular Hindi cinema's aficionados, the cinematic idiom's male protagonist, the Hindi film hero, is perceived as emblematic of the nation's travails and aspirations. Subsequently, this magnifies the role of the Bollywood male star who with his hyper-virile masculinity, is often employed to the task of articulating questions of national and cultural identity. As the seventies' iconic 'Angry Young Man,' Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan echoed the frustration of a nation battling political ineptitude, corruption and the demise of Nehruvian socialism. However, with the recent reinvention of his star persona, from the erstwhile 'Angry Young Man' to what I term as the 'Benevolent Patriarch,' Bachchan signifies millennial India's avowed espousal of neo-liberalism. Employing a detailed analysis of Amitabh Bachchan's star text, not only as a cinematic icon, but also, his recent avatar as a television host, consummate brand endorser and social media personality, I examine how the shift in his star discourse underlines issues of gender, class and national identity, particularly in the context of the shift from socialist ideals to consumerist aspirations. In doing so, I also contextualize the changing dynamics of contemporary Indian mediascape, with increasing synergy between film, television and digital media, thus engendering in the process, the transformation of the Bollywood star from a movie idol to a transmedia celebrity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper draws attention to some questions thrown up by the increased circulation of mass-produced cultural commodities sourced from Asia in the relatively new markets of the region. Juxtaposing the short-lived success of the Indian star Rajnikant in Japan in the late 1990s and the unsuccessful attempt to promote Korean films in the Indian theatrical circuits a decade later, the paper argues that in spite of their considerable differences both instances foreground the difficulties cultural industries of Asia have in generating revenues in the region's markets. The paper goes on to elaborate on a model of stardom, exemplified by Rajnikant, which has evolved as a direct response to the challenges posed by low value markets. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A biography of Indian actor Uttam Kumar is presented, highlighting his contributions to Bengali arthouse and popular cinema and the posthumous reception of his work. Kumar's popularity in India is highlighted, and the politicization of his life is noted. Other topics include Kumar's acting in romance films and his performance in Satyajit Ray's film "Nayak: The Hero."