Media spectacles: The production and reception of Tamil Cinema advertisements

Contemporary popular arts in Third World locations are agents of emergent modernities produced in the context of global interactions. This paper focuses on hand‐painted Tamil cinema advertisements that dominate the urban landscape in Chennai (Madras). Based on ethnographic research I demonstrate that the production network of these objects—methods of training, application of technology, and stylistic criteria—is constantly mutating. Reception of the advertisements unpacks a complex semiotics of internationalism and neo‐traditionalism as well as a mix of commercial and esthetic messages. I argue that these cinema advertisements are emblematic of the modernity of post‐colonial visual culture in India.