S.V. Srinivas examines three Telugu films to study how popular cinema deals with the issues of citizenship, rights and their denial:

With reference to popular cinema, to demonstrate that it reinforces the social construction of citizen and non-citizen figures is facile and inadequate. To my mind how cinema presents the problem and its resolution is more interesting. .[...] In the light of the above discussion it is possible to suggest that citizenship in popular cinema is certainly a privilege that is available to a small minority. However, the fact that a large part of the population remains outside the domain of rights is the cause of considerable anxiety, which is often projected on to citizen figures in film. The star is means of addressing this anxiety, of making the masses available for reformist initiatives, of making them speak in a language we understand.