ABSTRACT

On 24 April 2019, the New Delhi-based news agency, ANI, telecasted a ‘non-political’ interview of Prime Minister Narendra Modi conducted by Bollywood star Akshay Kumar. Regarded as a PR coup, particularly in the context of the ongoing Indian parliamentary elections, the ‘freewheeling’ interview underlined Bollywood’s increasing proximity with the Modi-led BJP government. Employing a detailed analysis of the interview and the subsequent controversy, I examine the Bollywood star’s role in disseminating political rhetoric, underlining in the process both shifts in discourses of Hindi film stardom, as well as the increasing politicisation of the new media ecology. In doing so, I also highlight the long-standing relationship and presence of Hindi film stars in the political arena, a fact that has received scant scholarly attention. As social networking sites like Twitter are inundated with selfies of Bollywood stars with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hashtags like #CelebritieswithNamo and #ModiWithAkshay, it is imperative to analyse this emergent confluence of the political and the popular. Thus, using the Akshay Kumar–Narendra Modi interview as a case study, I examine not only the relationship between Hindi film stars and politics but also, the role of social media in shaping the current dynamics.

摘要

2019年4月24日，总部位于新德里的新闻社ANI广播了宝莱坞明星阿克瑟·库玛（Akshay Kumar）对总理纳伦德拉·莫迪（Narendra Modi）的``非政治性''采访。被视为公关政变，特别是在印度议会选举仍在进行的情况下，“随心所欲”的采访强调了宝莱坞与莫迪领导的人民党政府之间的距离越来越近。通过对采访和随后的争议进行详细分析，我考察了宝莱坞明星在传播政治言论方面的作用，并在此过程中强调了印地语电影明星话语的转变以及新媒体生态的日益政治化。在此过程中，我还强调了印地语电影明星在政治舞台上的长期关系和存在，这一事实在学术界很少受到关注。随着诸如Twitter之类的社交网站上充斥着总理纳伦德拉·莫迪（Narendra Modi）的宝莱坞明星自拍照以及诸如#CelebritieswithNamo和#ModiWithAkshay之类的标签，必须分析这种新兴的政治与民众融合。因此，以Akshay Kumar-Narendra Modi访谈作为案例研究，我不仅考察了印地语电影明星与政治之间的关系，还考察了社交媒体在塑造当前动态中的作用。