Bhojpuri Consolidations in the Hindi Territory: Infrastructure, Aesthetics, and Competing Masculinit...

<jats:p>The soaring emergence of Bhojpuri cinema in 2004 took over the B/C segments of Hindi film distribution in most of north India. The success of the film industry had followed from a vibrant music industry; in a few subsequent years, however, the success of the Bhojpuri film industry turned against itself, on account of the shifting balance between production and exhibition sectors. This paper explores how the Bhojpuri industry negotiated this challenge, particularly with the reconsolidation of the Hindi film industry. I argue that the Bhojpuri stars benefitted most from the enforced reconfigurations as the film-texts became further subservient to stardom and the new aesthetic grammar was organized around the figure of the action-star. Through Jaan Tere Naam (Prasad, 2013)—one among a series of successful films featuring Khesari Lal Yadav—I assess Yadav’s popularity, earned via his performances as a launda (female impersonator). Bhojpuri cinema survives by projecting the male star as its primary text and arranging a plethora of pleasures around his figure, including the bawdy registers that proudly claim the insignia of nativity. The rebellious and native masculinity thus not only anchors the switch between bawdy irreverence and moral exactitude, it also vanquishes the “othered” urban values often resident in the female body.</jats:p>