Let’s Talk about Autos Only

What Shankar Nag fandom has to do with the making of and contemporary Kannadiga identity

01 September 2013
A legendary figure in Kannada cinema, Shankar Nag acted in over 80 films and directed ten, along with two television series.
DC NAGESH
A legendary figure in Kannada cinema, Shankar Nag acted in over 80 films and directed ten, along with two television series.
DC NAGESH

IT IS A RAINY EVENING in early May when I squeeze into an autorickshaw at Mathikere in north Bangalore with some friends. Electric blue lights blink above the driver’s seat; fluorescent stickers glow on the windshield; and speakers at the back play loud Kannada film music.

“Where, madam?” the auto driver asks, over the blaring music, expertly turning on the auto meter with his left hand while adjusting the rearview mirror with his right.

“Cantonment,” I reply, and then, spotting the photograph of a stylish man with thick hair at the bottom-right corner of the windshield, whose features I can only dimly make out through the white, sticky flipside of the sticker, ask, “Is that Shankar Nag?”

Sharanya  is reading for a PhD in drama and anthropology from the University of Exeter. She was formerly an intern at The Caravan.

Keywords: cinema Bangalore filmstar auto-rickshaw Karnataka MG Ramachandran linguistic states Shankar Nag
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