Dangerous Desires: Television and Erotics in Late Twentieth-Century India

DURING THE 1990s, THE INDIAN PUBLIC SPHERE witnessed a proliferation of representations of erotics.' Some of the eruption of the erotic into the public has been attributed to the expansion of transnational public culture, in particular the images, texts, and commodities flooding India after the liberalization of the economy. It has also been attributed to the advent of transnational satellite television-and here I refer not only to imported shows such as The Bold and the Beautiful and Santa Barbara but, more importantly, to soap operas, films, and talk shows produced specifically for viewers in India and its diasporas and beamed via transnational satellite networks such