Keeping in control: The figure of the fan in the Tamil film industry

In this article I propose to critically engage with the figure of the fan in Tamil Nadu’s cinematic landscape. The ways in which fans contribute to a visual and political landscape are rather exceptional in South Asia and therefore require particular attention. I use the notion of the figure, following Barker and Lindquist, as ‘subject positions that embody, manifest, and, to some degree, comment upon a particular historical moment’ to elucidate the blurring lines of the figure as notion and as lived experience. By examining the figure I will show how fandom is a constant dialogue between intense affinity, affection and excess versus justification, control and denunciation. This brings fans from being part of the grand narratives of cine-politics in Tamil Nadu and the often taken for granted positions that they take in this to a subject position that shows the practice of being a fan.