Size Zero Begums and Dirty Pictures: The Contemporary Female Star in Bollywood

Abstract

The privatization of the Indian economy in 1991 and the introduction of the multiplex to India in 1997 resulted in unprecedented changes in the structure and content of Bombay cinema in both its national imagination and its transnational travels (Ganti 2012, Mitra, 2012, Gopal 2011, Rai, 2009). Stars have occupied a crucial role in shaping this cinema from its inception, serving as markers of identity, anxiety, pleasure, and fantasy for audiences both at home and in the diaspora. However, studies on stardom in Bombay cinema[1] have suffered from a surprising paucity of analysis. The female star has especially been a subject of immense contention.

My paper attempts to closely study the star texts propagated by two leading contemporary Bollywood actresses, Kareena Kapoor and Vidya Balan. Both of them, in their careers that have now spanned a little more than a decade have encompassed in various ways the multitude of challenges and changes faced by the image of conventional Hindi film heroine. This persona was often dominated by hegemonic notions of an authentic ‘Indian womanhood’ both on and off screen. While studies of Hollywood stars and stardom do provide seminal interventions into the reading of stars as texts and their negotiations of a complex media environment, it is usually insufficient to entirely transport this paradigm to adapt the complex notion of Bollywood stardom.

My paper attempts to use the case studies of these two contemporary Bollywood actresses, Kareena Kapoor and Vidya Balan, in the context of the multitude of changes that have altered the notions of ‘ideal’ and ‘moral’ for the urbane/global yet rooted Indian woman. How have these changes affected their star discourse? In what way have they negotiated their respective star personas to align with the image of the ‘New Indian Woman’?[1] To what extent have they redefined or confused norms of female sexuality? What distinguishes their discourses from those of their predecessors? Can we argue for a new and changed articulation of the Bollywood female star, who effectively balances her representative and real images with more autonomy than we have seen feasible so far? My analysis attempts to expand on the definition of the ‘New Indian Woman’ by emphasizing the starkly contrasting ways in which it has been articulated by Kareena Kapoor and Vidya Balan. It suggests a possible realignment of several meanings borne traditionally by the female star in Bollywood, by interpreting them in the context of the multiplex cine-era in India.

This paper uses a close discursive analysis of interviews given to leading film magazines, television interviews and the kinds of media attention received in various websites and newspapers, to delineate and compare the stardom of these two actresses. It also includes a reading of some of their recent film choices to adequately tie in their on and off screen images, that underline several of seemingly radical changes in contemporary female stardom in India.