D S.V. Srinivas 24. Vidyasagar Rao is not a Kamma but that did not in any way challenge the conspiracy theory. 25. My-two informants wish to remain anonymous. 26. Based on interviews with Chiranjeevi fans in Hyderabad. I found particularly useful in understanding the response of fans to this film, the interviews with Ch. Venkateswara Rao, who conceded that the film was obscene and Vulisetty Anjaneeyulu, who did not know what obscenity ('asleelata' in Telugu) was and listed Alluda Majaka among his three favourite Chiranjeevi films. 33 27. See Lata Mani (1989) for a discussion on the constitution of women as the bearers of tradition. Partha Chatterjee (1993: pp. 116-134) argues that the emergence of the dualisms home/world and spiritual/ material was a significant moment in the history of Indian nationalism. Women were assigned the major role in the home which was seen a domain over which the state had no jurisdiction. 28. At this point I would like to emphasise that my notion of the masquerade is quite different from the way Sumita Chakravarty (1993) deploys it in her study of popular Hindi cinema. According to Chakravarty, . . . [t]he Bombay film's use of the masquerade is motivated ... by ideas of fragmentation and disintegration of the social/national body and its recuperation and regeneration. It serves as a crossover phenomenon: between the individual and the social, between one's current state and a future state, between the private citizen and the public official, between dis-ease and well-being. As Utopian moments interspersed in filmic texts, the masquerade signifies the triumph of social ideals within the context of the modern nation-state ( pp. 311-312). In my understanding, the masquerade is a key device for suturing antagonistic subject positions by the deployment of the star. 29. References to other films by the same star were common in Telugu films even before the mass-film came into being. Paidipaala (1992) draws our attention to a remarkable song in the NTR starrer Manushulanta Okkate (Dasari Narayana Rao, 1976) whose words consisted entirely of the titles of previous NTR starrers (76). In fact dozens of films featuring NTR, starting with Aggiramudu (1954), have "Ramu", 'Ramudu7 or 'Rama' (all diminutives of Rama Rao). For example, Ramudu Bheemudu, Ramu, Tigerramudu and Adaviramudu. It is beyond the scope of this study to enter into a discussion on how differently the biographical reference and cross-references to the star's other films were deployed in genres which preceded the mass-film. 30. See Dyer (1991: p. 135) for a discussion on the play between star-as-image and star-as-real person in films. REFERENCES Newspapers and Periodicals Andhra Jyoti (Telugu) India Today (Telugu) Mahila Margam (Telugu) Sivaranjani (Telugu) Superhit (Telugu) Articles and Books Appadurai, Arjun. 1986. "Theory in Anthropology; Center and Periphery." In Comparative Studies in Society and History. 28: 2 (April). Balagopal, K. 1991. 'Tost-Chunduru and Other dumdums." Economic and Political Weekly 24:42, pp. 2399- 2405. Chatterjee, Partha. 1993. The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Numbers 32-33