IIT Madras is a public technical and research university located in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Founded in 1959, it is recognised as an Institute of National Importance.

IIT Madras has been ranked as the top engineering institute in India for four years in a row by the National Institutional Ranking Framework of the MHRD

It currently offers undergraduate, postgraduate and research degrees across 16 disciplines in Engineering, Sciences, Humanities and Management. About 596 faculty belonging to science and engineering departments and centres of the Institute are engaged in teaching, research and industrial consultancy.

IIT Madras

Celebrity studies have largely focused on media stars in America and Europe. Stardom in contemporary Hindi cinema is an attempt to redress that balance with an examination of a variety of film stars in the present-day Mumbai-based Hindi film industry. The reach and significance of the Hindi film industry extend across the subcontinent into Africa, South America, Europe, Central Asia and now China. For these reasons alone, the shape celebrity takes in the Hindi industry is arguably as relevant for developing global models of stardom as any model elaborated elsewhere. On the one hand, Hindi film stars confirm what has been argued already about stardom; on the other, Indian stars seem to overflow the boundaries of Western celebrity in part through the kinds of roles and personas they adopt, and in part through the particular nature of their relationship to their audience. Other particularities of stardom in the Hindi industry worth consideration include cultural codes of concealment and exposure, as well as the stark contrast of industry insiders and outsiders. This volume’s parts group together the studies of individual film stars that draw out additional themes and concerns with the goal of inspiring continuing studies of Hindi (and perhaps another industry’s) film celebrity.

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

World University root node

Stardom in Contemporary Hindi Cinema

Introduction: Charting Stars in New Skies: Celebrity in Globalised Hindi Cinema

In this book, film scholars, anthropologists, and critics discuss star-making in the contemporary Hindi-language film industry in India, also known as “Bollywood.” Drawing on theories of stardom, globalization, transnationalism, gender, and new media studies, the chapters explore contemporary Hindi film celebrity. With the rise of social media and India’s increased engagement in the global economy, Hindi film stars are forging their identities not just through their on-screen images and magazine and advertising appearances, but also through an array of media platforms, product endorsements, setting fashion trends, and involvement in social causes. Focusing on some of the best-known Indian stars since the late 1990s, the book discusses the multiplying avenues for forging a star identity, the strategies industry outsiders adopt to become stars, and the contradictions and conflicts that such star-making produces. It addresses questions such as: What traits of contemporary stars have contributed most to longevity and success in the industry? How has filmmaking technology and practice altered the nature of stardom? How has the manufacture of celebrity altered with the recent appearance of commodity culture in India and the rise of a hyper-connected global economy? By doing so, it describes a distinct moment in India and in the world in which stars and stardom are drawn more closely than ever into the vital events of global culture. Hindi films and their stars are part of the national and global entertainment circuits that are bigger and more competitive than ever. As such, this is a timely book creates opportunities for examining stardom in other industries and provides fruitful cross-cultural perspectives on star identities today. “Grounded in rigorous scholarship as well as a palpable love of Hindi cinema, this collection of 19 essays on a dizzying array of contemporary Hindi film stars makes for an informative, thought-provoking, illuminating, and most of all, a joyful read. Pushing boundaries of not only global Star Studies but also film theory as a whole, this de-colonised and de-colonising volume is a must read for film scholars, students and cinephiles!" Dr. Sunny Singh, Senior Lecturer - Creative Writing and English Literature, Sir John Cass School of Art, Architecture & Design, London Metropolitan University “A wide-ranging overview of Hindi cinema’s filmi firmament today, focussing on its most intriguing and brightest-burning stars. The variety of approaches to stardom and celebrity by both established and upcoming scholars reveals a web of interconnecting stories and concerns that provide fascinating new insights into the workings of today’s Hindi film industry, while shining fresh light on contemporary India and the world we live in.” Professor Rosie Thomas, Centre for Research and Education in Arts and Media (CREAM), College of Design, Creative and Digital Industries, University of Westminster. © Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2020.

Stardom in Contemporary Hindi Cinema: Celebrity and Fame in Globalized Times

Stardom in contemporary hindi cinema: Celebrity and fame in globalized times

In this chapter, we examine the underpinnings of Khan’s career trajectory while tracing his dualities on- and off-screen. These contradictions have allowed him to move seamlessly from commercial successes to more offbeat roles in such films as Being Cyrus (Adjania <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-981-15-0191-3_2#CR28">2005</a>), Ek Hasina Thi (Raghavan <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-981-15-0191-3_2#CR49">2004</a>), Omkara (Bhardwaj <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-981-15-0191-3_2#CR34">2006</a>), along with his Netflix series Sacred Games (Kashyap and Motwane <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-981-15-0191-3_2#CR42">2018</a>). The chapter explores how a star’s identity is often cultivated over the years and how a star’s image exists in terms of “multiplicity of its meanings” (Dyer <a href="https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F978-981-15-0191-3_2#CR6">1998</a>: 63). Outside his films, he has sustained his celebrity via public interest in his famous parents, aristocratic lineage, romantic relationships, expensive lifestyle, endorsements, and his marriage (Khan’s second) to actor Kareena Kapoor. This prompts us to examine Saif’s always engrossing life, a narrative in its own right, adding to our reading of his stardom. We also outline the representation of masculinity in Hindi cinema by following Khan’s select works. In particular, we note the dawn of the metrosexual urban male on-screen, and Khan’s portrayal of this figure in post-globalization India. By placing Saif Ali Khan in the context of the Bollywood star system and considering that the star’s persona has many overlaps with that of other mainstream stars, the work also addresses Saif as a very twenty-first-century transmedia celebrity.

Saif Ali Khan: Stardom and the Alchemy of Celebrity

The article reads David Fincher’s Fight Club (1999) and Darren Aronofsky’s film The Wrestler (2008) as films that deploy masochistic spectacles of heroically suffering white men. Both Fincher and Aronofsky are well known for their dark and sometimes surreal films that frequently take up violence as a theme (Mayshark, 2007). They are also prominent auteurial voices, nominated for and winning multiple prominent film awards. Both Fincher and Aronofsky are, the article argues, representatives of a class of American directors who, starting in the early 1990s, made independent art house films and won accolades at various film festivals, making anti-mainstream, if not subversive cinema. These filmmakers of the 1990s sustained the spirit of enquiry that was the hallmark of the auteurs of the New Hollywood age. Our contention is that Fincher’s Fight Club and Aronofsky’s The Wrestler can be accommodated on this list as films made by subversive filmmakers and that they share common features owing to their commitment to explore constructions of masculinity and performances of the same. The question that the article seeks to address is—does David Savran’s framework offered in Taking it Like a Man: White Masculinity, Masochism, and Contemporary American Culture (1998) predict the distinct male posturing of masochistically suffering white men visible in Fight Club and The Wrestler? The article will primarily use the theoretical framework offered by David Savran to examine where Fight Club and The Wrestler are situated with respect to the mainstream Hollywood fare featuring hyper-masculine heroes. © 2015, © 2015 Mudra Institute of Communications, Ahmedabad, India.

Fulltext

Journal of Creative Communications

Narcissism, Masochism and the Reconstituted Male—Masculine Performances in Fight Club and The Wrestler

The article is a study of correlation between stardom and high fashion (haute couture) in postliberalized India. Apart from its well-documented implications on the Indian economy, the phenomenon of liberalization also impacted the way Hindi film stars became vehicles for international brands, on and off screen. My aim is to understand the iconography of actor Sonam Kapoor who is the face of a global brand of cosmetics, and also a fashion icon of Hindi cinema, a perfect embodiment of the aspirations of the upwardly mobile, urban youth. The article conflates theories of fashion, star iconography and celebrity culture. It predominantly tests Richard Dyer's contention, 'Star images are always extensive, multimedia, intertextual' (Heavenly Bodies, 2011, 3); Stella Bruzzi's conclusion that 'where the fashionable, too beautiful woman is concerned the issues of identity and identification become problematized, as the focus has shifted away from the woman herself to the art and spectacle of her clothes' (Undressing Cinema, 1997, 18); and Pamela Church Gibson's assertion in her reading of celebrity and stardom as, 'cinema itself is changing swiftly' (Fashion and Celebrity Culture, 2012, 67). Although fashion can be investigated from several angles (gender, consumerism, race/ethnicity, ideology, power relations), my concern is to understand high fashion as an identity-forming project, and to explain how in the postliberalized scenario stars fashion their celebrity through international couture. © 2014 © 2014 Taylor & Francis.

South Asian Popular Culture

Haute couture and the discourse of stardom in globalized times: Sonam Kapoor as Hindi cinema's representative fashion icon

New York is foregrounded in the works of many American writers. As evident in their works, the city has been a formative influence on writers as well as their output. New York appears as an entity by itself, sometimes as a benevolent multicultural melting pot and at other times as a dehumanizing centre of cold materialism populated by an inexhaustible variety of phonies. The present article discusses how Arthur Miller has individuated New York in his various writings, and examines the shift in the writer’s perception of the metropolis over the years. It is observed that, despite his vociferousness about his increasing disdain, most of his major works are grounded in the ethos of the city. Miller repeatedly presents a view of the city, encompassing its streets, its multi-ethnic character, its people, culture and, of course, its unique language. Since Miller’s prolific output makes it practically impossible to assess even all of his prominent works, this article is necessarily selective in its treatment of plays, fiction, non-fiction, autobiography and interviews. © 2014 Taylor & Francis.

Studies in Theatre and Performance

Arthur Miller and the New York state of being

'Postliberalization Indian Novels in English: Politics of Global Reception and Awards' is a critical handbook that focuses on trends in contemporary Indian novels and discusses the global reception of these works. The volume provides a systematic approach to the study of Indian novelists that have not been (with certain exceptions) extensively examined. © 2013 Aysha Iqbal Viswamohan editorial matter and selection.

Postliberalization Indian Novels in English: Politics of Global Reception and Awards

Postliberalization Indian novels in English: Politics of global reception and awards

If chick lit is popular fiction by, for and about young women (or 'tweens'), then lad lit can be explained as a fictional genre with books written by men and focusing on twentysomething male characters, particularly about those who are self-absorbed, nonconformist and afraid of commitment. While some critics may object to the general candy floss nature of the genre, what remains unchallenged is its enormous popularity among target readers, occasionally resulting in successful films. Notable examples include Bridget Jones's Diary (1996), Sex and the City (1997), The Devil Wears Prada (2003) and, to an extent, He's Just Not That Into You (2004) – all produced by big Hollywood studios, featuring major box office stars. Quite similar in tone are the 'guy's books': Nick Hornby being the accepted big daddy of the genre, along with Matt Dunn, Michael Weinreb, Michael Chabon and Eric Jerome Dickey (and to some degree Toby Young and Aaron karo's selected works). Some common themes that readers of this category are familiar with include masculine insecurities, competition at college or the work place, sexual fantasies, drug addiction, relationships, heartbreaks, family issues and obsession with sports. Like chick lit, lad lit too has a cult following, and some of the notable screen adaptations are High Fidelity (2000), How to Lose Friends and Alienate People (2008), About a Boy (2002) and Wonder Boys (2000), featuring A-list names such as Michael Douglas, Toby Maguire, Hugh Grant and John Cusack, in roles reinforcing the belief that 'boys will be boys'. © 2013 Aysha Iqbal Viswamohan editorial matter and selection.

Marketing lad lit, creating bestsellers: The importance of being chetan bhagat

‘C-a-t, cat. Cat mane billi; r-a-t, rat mane chooha’ went a song from a Hindi film of the fifties (mane&nbsp;=&nbsp;‘means’, billi&nbsp;=&nbsp;‘cat’, chooha&nbsp;=&nbsp;‘rat’). The song, enormously popular with Indian youth of that generation, was scoffed at by the then contemporary purists who found it hard to accept such ‘blatant’ dilution of the Hindi language. This song, like a few more of its times, was merely an exception to the largely acceptable language of songs, then largely a mix of Hindi, Urdu and Persian. English was, thus, used in songs either when it depicted (literally, since songs are acted out as autonomous scenes in Bollywood) a comic actor in a light-hearted situation or a semi-literate character desperate to accommodate to the urban ways of life. A celebrated song from Gopi, a Hindi film of the early seventies, goes a step forward with its novel coinage. The hero is a rustic who tries to impress his fellow villagers by dressing up in city (read English) style and sings: