ABSTRACT
Scholars have documented how new technologies, shifts in political and economic policies, and industrial re-configurations have transformed the media landscape in post-liberalization India (Mehta 2005; Ganti 2012; Punathambekar 2013). These shifts have intensified the relationship between the Bombay film industry and television. This is visible in the increase in the screening of films and film-related content on television as well as the personnel traffic between the two entertainment sectors. In this chapter, I explore the role of the Mirchi Music Awards, aired on television, in constructing and circulating stardom and song sequences. My analysis is indebted to Neepa Majumdar’s work (2009), which expands our critical vocabulary on stardom by drawing our attention to what she calls “aural” and “visual” stardom in the context of Bombay cinema. Describing the exchange between “aural” and “visual” stardom in the 1950s, she notes the actor gained a singing voice, enhancing her stardom, while the playback singer acquired gesture, i.e., facial expressions, physical and dance movements; thus, the voice was embodied. For audiences the pleasure became two-fold: the pleasure in knowing the playback singer who is singing the song and the actor who is performing it on screen. Majumdar’s work suggests that while both forms of stardoms were equally renowned, aural stardom, in particular female aural stardom, lasted longer since it was not bound by the norms of vision (e.g., age, beauty).
