Stardom in Contemporary Hindi Cinema

Aysha Iqbal Viswamohan is a Professor of Films, Literature and Popular Culture at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, India. Her teaching /research interests include American literature, drama, film studies, and popular culture, and she has published papers in respected journals. She has also written a number of books, including Arthur Miller: The Dramatist & His Universe (T.R. Publishers, 2005); Postliberalization Indian Novels in English (Anthem, 2013); and Behind the Scenes: Contemporary Bollywood Directors (Sage, 2017).Clare Wilkinson is an Associate Professor at the Department of Anthropology, Washington State University Vancouver, USA, where she teaches arts and media in a global perspective; history of anthropological theory; and speech, thought, and culture. She has published articles in Ethnology, Visual Anthropology Review, Anthropological Quarterly, Ethnography, and the Journal of Material Culture. Her books include Embroidering Lives: Women’s Work and Skill in the Lucknow Embroidery Industry (SUNY Press, 1999); Fashioning Bollywood: The Making and Meaning of Costumes in the Hindi Film Industry (Bloomsbury Academic, 2014); and Critical Craft: Technology, Capitalism and Globalization (co-edited with Alicia O. DeNicola, Bloomsbury, 2016).

• Part 1: Masculinity, Celebrity, Stardom.- Chapter 1. Saif Ali Khan: Stardom and the alchemy of celebrity.- Chapter 2. Celebrity as cultural formation: Shah Rukh Khan, the nation, and the world.- Chapter 3. ‘Don’t Hold Back Jack’: Ranveer Singh, masculinity, and new media ecology.- Chapter 4. The rise of the anti-hero: Deconstructing the subversive stardom of Emraan Hashmi in globalized times.- Part 2: Spectacular Bodies.- Chapter 5. The Cardboard Queen: Aishwarya Rai and the rise of the lady vamp.- Chapter 6. Having it both ways: The Janus-like career of Kareena Kapoor.- Chapter 7. Shahid Kapoor: Multi-platform mediations of a mid-level star.- Chapter 8. Action, sensation and the kinetic Body: The stardom of Hrithik Roshan.- Chapter 9. The Body and its multimedia sensations: Forging starry identities through item numbers.- Part 3: The ‘Outsiders’.- Chapter 10. The Plough and the star: The Improbable Celebrity of Nawazuddin Siddiqui.- Chapter 11. Indie not Indian: Kalki Koechlin andthe Representation of the White Indian Star in Bollywood and hatkē Cinema.- Chapter 12. Akshay Kumar: The Khiladi of Box-Office.- Chapter 13. Waif to Warrior: Kangana Ranaut.- Part 4: Women on Top.- Chapter 14. Unstarry stardom: The Making of Anushka Sharma.- Chapter 15. How do you solve a problem like Vidya? Female Stardom in the Times of Size Zero.- Chapter 16. Alia Bhatt: The New Female Subject and Stardom.- Part 5: Transnational Stardom.- Chapter 17. Transnational rites of passage, national stardom: Irrfan Khan's Presence in Hollywood Cinema.- Chapter 18. Tabu: Less is more.- Chapter 19. Priyanka Chopra: From Bollywood superstar to Global-Indian Icon.