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| Gandhinagar, Vijayawada (2001). The relatively unusual sight
of promotion of a female star (here Meena, who starred in the
devotional film Devata) |
A publication titled Jubilee Star
is brought out on the occasion of a relatively minor Telugu
star, Srikanth's birthday. |
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| Everybody knows the star. A school child writes to Chiranjeevi.
A significant proportion of fan mail reaches stars in spite
of incomplete or wrong addresses. |
Over the years, Chiranjeevi fans’ associations have
begun calling themselves social service organizations. This
is, at least in part, due to the star’s own insistence
that stars focus their energies on doing social service. |
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| Most fans associations call themselves Town/ City/ State/
Nation-wide organizations. A majority of associations are highly
localized. It is not unusual to find All India associations
promoting the star in a medium sized town. Jagapathi Babu, whose
card can be seen above, is a relatively minor star. |
Fans associations are an exclusively male domain. Here is
an exception that proves the rule: Parachuri Vijayalakshmi established
an association dedicated to the promotion of the female star
Vijayashanthi. Within a few years she wound up the association.
At the present, organized female fans make an appearance only
in hearsay. |
The official Vijayashanthi fan club, which focusses on
the political promotion of the star who is an important campaigner
for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). |
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Swarna complex, Viyawada (2003).
NTR Junior’s fans invoke the star’s grandfather
to promote his father Hari Krishna’s latest film.
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Expensive advertisements are increasingly becoming the hallmark
of fans with access to resources. Greeting Balakrishna on his
44th birthday, this advertisement invokes the blessings of ‘our
god’ N.T. Rama Rao, who is the star’s father. (Superhit,
27th June 2003) |
Fan promotion of the star routinely foregrounds the fans themselves.
Here is an advertisement by Balakrishna fans, with picture of
all the sponsors. (Superhit,
27th June, 2003) |
N.T. Rama Rao (twirling his mustache), Balakrishna and
Balakrishna’s son. Past, present and future stars. The
NTR family currently has five stars in the film industry.
(Superhit, 27th June
2003) |
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