Retro styles and pan-Indian stardom in Dulquer Salmaan’s non-Malayalam movies

The concept of stardom in contemporary Indian cinema is transforming. As stardom is a phenomenon that is linked to the social conditions of a region, the study of stars can reveal the complex political and cultural dynamics of a place. A visible component of stardom in contemporary Indian films and popular culture is a desire to reclaim the cultural past, particularly the styles and charm of the previous periods that can be termed ‘retro’. This retro sensibility is an outcome of negotiations between filmmakers and stars with contemporary politics rooted in Hindu nationalism. This article is an attempt to examine the formation of stardom of an actor, Dulquer Salmaan, selecting his non-Malayalam movies against the backdrop of the emergence of pan-India cinema. For this purpose, I analyse four movies, Mahanati (Nag ), Sita Ramam (Hanu ), Chup: Revenge of the Artist () and the Netflix series Guns & Gulaabs (), foregrounding costume, style and fashion in these movies. I argue that the study of costumes and styles in contemporary movies provides significant insights into the construction of stardom, which can also explore the complex relationship between pan-India films and cultural nationalism and its aesthetic manifestations.