Popular Culture and Pop Sociology

Popular Culture and Pop Sociology K Ravi Srinivas THIS is a comment on three articles that appeared
R Srivatsan's meditations (pp 777-88) on Sridevi and her image, her caste' etc, arc amusing. Unfortunately I know (not from Eco, Foucault et al, but from popularmaga- zines) that Sridevi's caste (Naidu) is classified as a backward caste in Tamil Nadu. Her sister is married to Sanjay Ramaswamy (MLA of Virudhunagar constituency and son of justice V Ramaswamy) I am afraid that neither the viewers of films nor producers/ actresses are conscious of caste when it comes to films. Actresses assume different names while acting in different language films. For example Sudha Rani retains her original name while acting in Kannada films whereas in Tamil films her name is Shali and in Telugu films she is known as Gayathri. 'Kodaimazhai' Vidya is known as Sunita in Malayalam films whereas her name is Vidyasri in Tamil films. One can give many such examples. If one were to try to find out their caste from their looks and names it would be an attempt in vain. Kushboo, a Punjabi Muslim is a very popular film star in Tamil Nadu now and started her career as a child star in Hindi films. She has acted in Telugu films also but now she is more popular in Tamil Nadu, One is reminded of popular Hindi film actresses of the yester years who were Muslims (Waheeda Rahman, Zeenat -Amman, etc).