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While the interpenetration of cinema and politics in India is frequently highlighted by the popular media, the topic has received scant analytical attention from scholars. In this essay that traces the evolution of the public image of Tamil Nadu state's former chief minister, Jayalalitha Jayaram, from film star to party leader to popular deity, I offer an interpretation of the phenomenon. I first propose that although visual representations of film stars and politicians in Tamil Nadu have ostensibly separate agendas (as advertisements for the cinema and political parties respectively) their identical form and juxtaposition in public spaces work to obfuscate boundaries between politics and screenplay, human and divine, thereby actively aiding the machinations of politicians who seek to enthrall their constituents. The case of Jayalalitha is particularly unusual given her identity as an extremely powerful female political leader. My analysis therefore, focuses on questions of gender in the unique transformation of public images of Jayalalitha from female co-star, primarily an object for erotic contemplation, to mother goddess, worshipped as the supreme embodiment of shakti or power.
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