Fans--another look I've been reading the Bombay English-language fan magazines for eight years. There are 5 principal monthlies, another that used to come out twice a month (haven't seen it lately) and a trade paper called "Screen" which doesn't print gossip but does cover marriages, deaths, etc. in the whole Bombay film world (spilling over into South and Bengali regional industries when appropriate). Indian film censorship is still very strict, but there have been some changes in what is allowed--after all, Star TV is there now, and plenty of sexy English-language films in theaters and on video. So a little nudity, some rough (clothed) sex, a bit of adultery not immediately punished--this is allowed in Hindi films today. But an example of the treatment of sex in cinema is the remake of FATAL ATTRACTION, HAAR JEET, which also incorporated SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME. In the end the Glenn Close character gives her life to save the hero, the cop who is protecting her. In essence nothing has changed. The fan press is something else. "Stardust," "Cine Blitz," "Star and Style," and even sedate "Filmfare" are packed with fashion ads and the kind of stories "Confidential" marketed in its prime. Since Bombay cinema is almost totally star-driven, and has been for at least 50 years, the stars' lives have become parallel text to the films. Recent studies on the lives of Amitabh Bachchan and others have brought this phenomenon into academia. All my Indian friends who are movie fans follow the stars' lives to some degree, whether or not they ever read this "yellow" press--more sanitized versions of the same stories pop up in the mainstream Indian press regularly, and a recent crossover event has been the press war between stars who feel the gossips have gone too far and the gossips themselves who claim privilege. These battles have the function of keeping the mutual benefits in high profile, and legitimizing the actions of the gossip press (which usually has the upper hand--who wants to read denials?). A few years ago, Morley Safer on "60 Minutes" said he believed most of the stories were true. Certainly a lot of money changes hands in obtaining the stories from servants, spies, friends, starlets (male and female) etc. So with their images untarnished by film roles, the stars become actors in their life stories--with the same attributes as their super hero/ines. Dharmendra and the Khan brothers drink and get into fights. Rekha survives the death of her first husband and the suicide of her latest in one year. Amitabh grows old--overnight. This is pure cinema, and has been depicted in Indian films by other stars. The second tier of stories, however, is the "forbidden" material. Here are some stories that ran once, or over months and years, in the gossip glossies, with no chance of being turned into films _a clef_. (1) Heroine of art films moves in with married co-star, attends a friend's cremation (which the gossip press says is forbidden to women), marches in a political protest, and dies following childbirth. (2) After 20 years in films, this "virginal" actress has reached her thirties still popular, has affair with married co-star, breaks up. Fan mag produces "evidence" of a secret marriage and a secret divorce (stars can be bigamous even though it's illegal for the common folk). Later her marriage proposal is rejected by an important non-resident Indian millionaire. None of this dampens her popularity. (3) Ex-mistress of star-politician plays "Pretty Woman" in life. She falls in love with multimillionaire, whose family rejects her as trash. So she gives up films, goes to Australia (I think), opens a business. Some time later his family relents, and there is a big wedding. (4) Elderly star of the 50s who nursed his wife through a serious illness shrugs off stories that he had homosexual affair in his youth-so what? This is the kind of parallel text that has emerged from years of bland "My Favorite Food" kind of fan magazine journalism. I don't do fan studies, and I don't know who reads these glossies. But the stories of the stars' lives are important to their careers in a way that doesn't seem to apply here. (I'm thinking of several posthumous biographies of "our" stars which spill all kinds of nasty information which seems irrelevant to anything they did on screen.) In India, bland people don't get into print. If the young actors and actresses don't have some scandal to bring with them, or quickly find one, they will be treated like tapioca pudding. Cute pictures--and you'll probably never hear of them again until they marry (by arrangement) and retire. So, "I am not a homosexual!" says Male Model and "Did xxx really make that porno film in the U.S.?" ("Yes but it's not porno!" she retorts.) Meanwhile on screen, these people bow at the feet of their elders, annihilate crooked politicians, destroy rapists. Oh yes, one actor has been accused of rape and another of murder in the glossies...