‘Miss World’ meets ‘dutiful daughter-in-law’: modernity, marriage, motherhood and the Bollywood female star

Abstract

ABSTRACTIn this article, I analyse how the star text of popular Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai underlines the female star’s attempt to navigate the chasm between the divergent realms of tradition and modernity, the private and the public. Employing a detailed analysis of Rai’s star image, particularly extra-textual material such as media interviews and features, I examine how the two seemingly contradictory aspects of tradition and modernity, and consequently the private and the public, have been employed to facilitate the construction of her star persona and celebrity stature. In doing so, I look at the crucial role essayed by the female star’s off-screen narrative, particularly her personal life, in the mediation of her star image. Focusing primarily on the multiple, and often oppositional, narratives that structure Rai’s star persona – as a former beauty queen, a Bollywood actress, a global brand endorser and, more recently, as a wife, daughter-in-law and mother – I examine how these diverse narratives function to render her star image more stable and authentic. In the context of the Bollywood stars’ iconic cultural currency and social relevance, Rai’s mediation of her star image and her assimilation of her private/off-screen and public/on-screen avatars are particularly significant.