This book examines the deep connection between cinema and politics in India. it provides a picture of the Telugu cinema, as both industry and cultural from, over fifty formative years. It argues that films are directly related both to the rise of an elite which dominates Andhra Pradesh and other parts of India, and to the emergence of a new idiom of mass politics.

S.V. Srinivas is Senior Fellow at the Centre for the Study of Culture and Society, Bangalore, and co-ordinator of the Culture: Industries and Diversity in Asia (CIDASIA) research programme there. He was educated at St Stephen's College, Delhi, and the University of Hyderabad. He has taught at Arunachal University (now Rajiv Gandhi University), Doimukh, and held visiting positions at the National University of Singapore and Hokkaido University. He was ICCR Visiting Professor of Indian Culture and Society at Georgetown University for 2012–13. His publications include the book Megastar (2009) as well as many essays on popular culture as an industry.