In the 1950s, the first decade of the new nation after the achievement of independence from Dutch colonial rule, the Indonesian film industry produced on average about thirty-five films a year. The 1960s saw a decline in the number of films made, due initially to the political problems of the Guided Democracy period. There was only a total of forty-five feature films produced in the four years immediately following the abortive army purge of 30 September 1965 and the rise to power, via a gradual ‘countercoup’, of General Suharto's army-led repressive New Order regime. However, in the early 1970s, beginning with the introduction of widescreen and colour, the Indonesian film industry saw unprecedented growth, with on average some seventy films produced each year for nearly the next twenty years. James Siegel has suggested that the early New Order period was also the period in which musical celebrities (pop stars), or celebrities of any kind, first appeared in Indonesia (Siegel 1986: 212).

This chapter explores three kinds of stardom that emerged in Indonesia in the 1970s and were influential for most of the New Order period and later: the songs and films of the Betawi singer and film comedian Benyamin S (1939–95); the songs and films of the dangdut singer Rhoma Irama (b. 1946); and three stars who emerged in the framework of Teguh Karya's film and theatre collective, Teater Populer: Christine Hakim (b. 1956), Slamet Rahardjo (b. 1949) and Tuti Indra Malaon (1939–89). The chapter takes these three phenomena as examples of different kinds of stardom. In the case of Benyamin S, I argue that it is Betawi culture, and not just the artist, that is the star. In Rhoma Irama's case, it is the individual as superstar that is the star. Regarding the three actors from Teater Populer, these were professional actors first, who became stars and used their stardom to give themselves other roles in the society.

Discussions of stardom in the USA, Britain and Europe, that is, countries of the First World, have been pioneered by Richard Dyer, initially in his book, Stars.