Madhuri Dixit Temple and Pappu Sardar

This section, Chapters 3 and 4 of the book focus on the devotional fandom of Pappu Sardar, a one-man fan club who has created a temple for Bollywood star Madhuri Dixit in Tatanagar. By analyzing this temple for a Bollywood star, I question the reimagination of the Hindu temple in contemporary India. I document the visual, structural, spatial, and performative space of the temple and how it provides a material presence to the practices of Pappu Sardar, who worships the film star as a form of the Hindu goddess, Durga. I also examine the devotional fandom of the renowned painter, M.F. Husain through a series of paintings that he dedicated to Madhuri and how Pappu Sardar recontextulaizes them in his temple.

Note: *Some images are linked to fan videos and other resourceful links (such as newspaper articles, fan club websites, etc.). Click when the cursor shows a hand sign on the image to access the information.