The Deified Celebrity: Understanding Representations of Celebrity Worship in India A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Philosophy in English by Vidya Balakrishnan (Reg. No. 1334111) Under the Guidance of Renu Elizabeth Abraham Assistant Professor Department of English CHRIST UNIVERSITY BENGALURU, INDIA December 2015 i Approval of Dissertation Dissertation entitled The Deified Celebrity: Understanding Representations of Celebrity Worship in India by Vidya Balakrishnan, Reg. No. 1334111 is approved for the award of the degree of Master of Philosophy in English. Examiners: 1. ___________________ ___________________ 2. ___________________ ___________________ 3. ___________________ ___________________ Supervisor(s): Renu Elizabeth Abraham Chairman: Dr. John Joseph Kennedy Date: ___________ Place: Bengaluru ii DECLARATION I Vidya Balakrishnan hereby declare that the dissertation, titled The Deified Celebrity: Understanding Representations of Celebrity Worship in India is a record of original research work undertaken by me for the award of the degree of Master of Philosophy in English. I have completed this study under the supervision of Renu Elizabeth Abraham, Assistant Professor, Department of English. I also declare that this dissertation has not been submitted for the award of any degree, diploma, associateship, fellowship or other title. It has not been sent for any publication or presentation purpose. I hereby confirm the originality of the work and that there is no plagiarism in any part of the dissertation. Place: Bengaluru Date: Vidya Balakrishnan Reg No. 1334111 Department of English Christ University, Bengaluru iii CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the dissertation submitted by Vidya Balakrishnan (Reg. No. 1334111) titled The Deified Celebrity: Understanding Representations of Celebrity Worship in India is a record of research work done by him/her during the academic year 2013-2015 under my/our supervision in partial fulfillment for the award of Master of Philosophy in English. This dissertation has not been submitted for the award of any degree, diploma, associateship, fellowship or other title. It has not been sent for any publication or presentation purpose. I hereby confirm the originality of the work and that there is no plagiarism in any part of the dissertation. Place: Bengaluru Date: Renu Elizabeth Abraham Assistant Professor Department of English Christ University, Bengaluru Signature of the Head of the Department Department of English Christ University, Bengaluru iv Dedication To Amma and Achan who will never let me stop from learning v Acknowledgements This dissertation has been a long time in the making and there are many individuals who need to be thanked for their support and guidance who in one way or another contributed and extended their valuable assistance in the completion of this research. My parents deserve the first set of words of gratitude for egging me on in their own special way to always keep moving forward and continue studying no matter the workload, the long hours or the vein that was threatening to pop out of my skull. They got me started on this journey and it has been two years since then and despite all my shortcomings towards this programme, they never gave me the option to quit, ever. I write this for them. I am indebted to my guide Ms Renu Elizabeth Abraham, Assistant Professor, Department of English whose patience was truly tested during this duration with my manner of working. Her guidance and suggestions despite the rushed execution of this project were timely and helped shape this work to its final outcome. My gratitude to my internal guides Dr Neeraja S and Mr Padma Kumar for taking the time to clear the clutter and provide direction and help through words of motivation and encouragement mixed with a high sense of what was practical and “what can she do now”? I am deeply grateful to all the faculty members of the Department of English, Christ University, Bengaluru for their support and assistance. I would like to thank Dr. John Joseph Kennedy, Dean- Humanities and Social Sciences and Dr. Abhaya N B, Associate Professor, Department of English and Dr Sushma V Murthy, Associate Professor, for their support. I am truly grateful to Mr Joshua. G who served as the course coordinator for MPhil, when I began and who has been nothing but patient with all the questions and extensions on my part. I am grateful for all the advice and support. I would also like to extend my gratitude to Mr Edward Felix who serves as the current course vi coordinator and had to bear with constant disturbances of a ward who was suddenly enthusiastic to complete her work. Your patience and concern is highly appreciated. This would not have been possible without the support of the members of my department of English and Student Welfare Office at Christ Junior College. I am grateful for the support I received. At this point, my students deserve a special mention. A number of them have moved on since I began the course. To those who left and still remembered to ask, the batch of 2014, ‘15 and ‘16, Christ Junior College, thank you for your reminders constantly inquiring if I was done, over and over and over again. I am. I am truly grateful to my colleague Arnilla Kumar for getting me started on this long journey that has finally come to an end, my teacher Mr P M Varghese who offered himself as an example on ‘how not to go about an MPhil’ and from whom I learnt and my friend Gaana Nair, for always being the spell check to my flawed dictionary. The other good outcome from this dissertation, apart from the final bound copy, is a friendship that was formed and strengthen during the times leading to the final bound copy and I am grateful for that. Lakshmi Dileep, we survived! There are no words to thank the last set of people whom I don’t need to thank anyway and the only reason I am writing their names is so that they can be published somewhere! Lakshmi B, Sujitha V P, Raja Rajalakshmi K, Raja Rajeshwari K, Santhosh C A, Karthik M, I am indebted to all of you. A ‘thank you’ would overly underestimate what you mean to me, so I will not. Finally, my gratitude to God. I have faltered many times in the process of ensuring this research sees the light of day, and I am thankful for the guidance to finally reach the finish line. vii Abstract This research concerns itself with the study of celebrity worship and its representations. It will seek to study acts of deification as performed by the celebrity and analyse how these acts have been constructed and represented by the media. Celebrity culture has inundated our way of life courtesy the ubiquitous presence of the media rendering us a forced audience. The celebrity is a product of the media that works in tandem with the mass. While questions regarding the already present means of construction, production, and dissemination of the celebrity have probably been asked and answered, this research titled The Deified Celebrity: Understanding Representations of Celebrity Worship in India aims at analysing the image of a very specific category of celebrity: The deified. In doing so, this research will aim to ask and answer questions on what goes into deifying a celebrity? Celebrity worship is the fan’s devotion towards the celebrity that results in the star being treated god-like. The researcher aims to examine the existence of means or markers unique to celebrity deification and investigate if they are extrapolated from already existing and recognisable systems of worship. Is every celebrity treated god-like or is there an underlying mechanism working at the creation of only few venerated ones? Are the media and the audience equal partners or do the scales favour one side particularly and why? The framework used to further this research will borrow from Stuart Hall’s theory of encoding and decoding. Through textual analysis, the researcher will observe the process of meaning making construction of identities of the celebrity to the deified and the fan to the devotee. While celebrity worship can be witnessed over a large demographic, this dissertation will limit itself to analysing the construction, production, and dissemination of deified celebrities in India. In a country that houses over 33 million Gods— and that is just Hinduism— and viii hosts the largest movie industry in the world – 1,200 films per year— it shouldn’t come as a surprise that creating more gods in the name of celebrity worship has become an almost mundane practice. The research argues that while the fans and audience use the medium of religion to express their fervour and adoration of a celebrity, they do not actually imply the celebrity to be God and are instead creating a new ‘class’ of mortals that oscillate between their real and reel identities (both of which the audience is aware); a new age god perhaps? Keywords: Celebrity; Celebrity worship; Fan; Deification; Celebrity religion; Media; God TABLE OF CONTENTS Approval of Dissertation i Declaration ii Certificate iii Dedication iv Acknowledgments v Abstract vii Chapter I: Introduction 1-16 Chapter II: Understanding Celebrity Worship 17-34 Chapter III: Narrativizing the Celebrity: Reading Representations Of Celebrity Deification 35-67 Chapter IV: Discussion and Conclusion 68-73 Bibliography 74 Balakrishnan 1 Chapter 1 Introduction Fame is a fickle friend, Harry. Celebrity is as celebrity does. Remember that. -Gilderoy Lockhart J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (1998) This dissertation explores the process of meaning making within celebrity culture. It concerns itself with understanding representations of deified celebrities in India. The researcher will attempt to understand the narativization of these deified celebrities by reading representations from mainstream media and fan pages that showcase these celebrities as ‘more than human’.