Deities and Devotees: Cinema, Religion, and Politics in South India

How have cinema and popular religion shaped each other? Is the display of devotion in the cinema hall the same as devotion in a temple? If cinema has a power to persuade people to believe in the image, to mesmerize or even possess them, how do we understand that compelling power?

Through engaging with these questions, this book presents a genealogical study of the intersections between cinema, religion and politics in South India. Through a study of Telugu mythological and devotional films,...