India: Where Movie Stars Become Gods

[Guest guest]

NEW DELHI (20 April 2006): For two days in April, Bangalore looked

like Baghdad.

Following the death by heart attack of the south Indian film icon

known as Rajkumar, grieving fans shut down the nation's knowledge

capital. Bangalore's streets, usually imagined as paved with hi-tech

gold, were on 12 and 13 April turned into a stage for tear gas,

gunfire, burning cars and bloody street clashes between police and

60,000 of Rajkumar's supporters.

The final body count: eight, including a young policeman killed and

strung up by outraged fans attempting to gain entry into their

hero's funeral.

To a bemused world, this fiery convulsion triggered by the death of

an old actor was just another example of Indians' idiosyncratic,

borderline-religious love for their movie stars. This was also the

local view in some quarters. [...]

Perhaps. But to see the Bangalore riots as just an extreme case of

Hindu-tinged Bollywood fan-worship is an oversimplification. [...]

 

According to [stephen Hughes, an Indian film and culture scholar at

the University of London], the riots should also be seen as a form

of traditional public hysteria based in south Indian grieving

practices. [...]

Such cadres are common in Indian film and cricket fandom, and can be

organised along regional, class and caste lines.

"Being a fan is a vehicle for asserting an identity," says Amit S

Rai, a professor of cultural studies at the University of

Florida. "The Indian film star is a nexus of political, economic and

social forces that are in a state of radical flux. Events

surrounding the star's life or death easily flow from site to site,

or from meaning to meaning." [...]

[F]ew deny that Indians generally have a deeper, more complex and

more personal relationship with their film icons than Western

audiences. Last week, when Bollywood heartthrob Salman Khan spent

three nights in prison on charges of illegal poaching, thousands of

his fans spent nights outside his jail cell. In 1982, when iconic

Bollywood leading man Amitabh Bachchan was injured on a shoot, the

nation practically came to a stop. (But not for the Bachchan fan who

walked half of the length of India backwards as a show of penance.)

 

Most closely resembling the regional stature of Rajkumar was the

Tamil actor and politician MG Ramachandran. Following Ramachandran's

death in 1987, more than two million Indians followed his remains,

30 fans committed suicide and thousands shaved their heads in a show

of sorrow and respect.

 

There are no lack of theories about the source and nature of this

devotion. These theories usually touch on the religious nature of

Indian society, the all-pervasive social presence of film stars, and

the high emotional content of Indian life.

 

"It's difficult to explain logically," said Nyan Bhushan, a New

Delhi-based entertainment industry analyst, who also covers Indian

film for the Hollywood Reporter. "Star-worship in India is

spiritual. Audiences attach themselves to the personae of stars, who

often play gods. They also relate very personally to the family

roles played by stars, which is most roles. Amitabh Bachchan is a

son to half of India, a father to the other half."

The fact that Amitabh Bachchan, who gained fame playing Angry Young

Man roles in the 1970s, has a temple in his honor in Calcutta speaks

to the spiritual aspect of Indian fan worship. Dr Rachel Dwyer,

author of 'Filming the Gods: Religion and Hindu Cinema, says

Hinduism is particularly suited to generating intense attachment to

stars.

 

"There is a tradition of worshiping people in India," said

Dwyer. "The guru, the deceased family member, the cricket player.

There is no problem worshipping people in Hinduism."

Dwyer points to the concept of darshan, or "looking" as an integral

aspect of Hindu worship. "People go into a temple and 'take sight'

of the gods, [who] 'give sight' in return," she says. "There are

parallels with how we experience cinema." [...]

But [...] do Indian fans actually see their favorite stars as

godlike?

 

"This is a country with something like 300 million official

deities," said Nyan Bhushan, the analyst. "Why not add a few more?"

 

SOURCE: Spiked Culture, London

URL: http://www.spiked-online.com/Printable/0000000CB029.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

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