Celluloid Deities

This book focuses attention on an aspect of India's dynamic and vibrant street art: billboard size advertisements, hand-painted for the entertainment cinema industry and local political parties, that unfurl mural-like across the urban landscape of Chennai, located in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, India. The making and consuming of this public art engenders a space for relay between film celebrities and political figures based on a visual cultural discourse of charisma.

Towering billboards featuring photorealistic portraits of popular cinema stars and political leaders dominated the cityscape of Chennai, in the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu, throughout the second half of the twentieth century. Studying the manufacture and reception of these billboards_known locally as banners and cutouts_within the context of the entwined histories of the cinema industry and political parties in Tamil Nadu, Preminda Jacob reveals the broader significance of these fragments of visual culture beyond their immediate function as pretty pieces of advertising. Jacob analyzes the juxtaposition of cinematic and political imagery in the extra-cinematic terrain of Chennai's city streets and how this placement was pivotal to the elevation of regional celebrities to cult status. When interpreting these images and discussing their political and cultural resonance within the Tamil Nadu community, Jacob draws upon multiple perspectives to give appropriate context to this fascinating form of visual media.

1 Table of Contents 2 Acknowledgments
Chapter 3 Introduction: Of Painters, Politicians, and Film Stars
Chapter 4 1. Chennai's Banner Industry Artists and their Methods
Chapter 5 2. Cooperation and Conflict in Chennai's Visual Culture: Financiers, Artists and Their Audiences
Chapter 6 3. Tamil Cinema: History, Celebrities, Genres
Chapter 7 4. Cine Signs: Semiotics of Chennai's Cinema Banners
Chapter 8 5. The Coalescence of Tamil Nationalism and the Cinema Industry
Chapter 9 6. The Political Cutout: Celebrity and Cult in Tamil Nadu
Chapter 10 7. Darshan and Cinematic Spectatorship
Chapter 11 8. The Future of Chennai's Visual Culture 12 Bibliography 13 About the Author