The power of pop culture to inform literary work is on full display with the critical success of Shivram Gopinath’s poetry collection, Dey. Currently a nominee for Best Literary Work at the Singapore Book Awards 2026, the collection creatively subverts the tropes of Tamil cinema to comment on the realities of the Singaporean Indian migrant experience. By reimagining the “invincible hero” common in Tamil films, Gopinath explores the hopes, dreams, and anxieties of a community navigating a new country.
The collection has been noted for its playful yet poignant approach, featuring a cover illustration that depicts Tamil superstar Rajinikanth with a durian—a perfect symbol of the book’s cross-cultural, fusion-focused intent. The success of Dey is a testament to how globalized pop culture icons, like Rajinikanth, transcend their original medium to become symbols that can be used to process complex themes of self-discovery, displacement, and multiculturalism. It serves as a reminder that the most compelling pop culture stories are often those that use familiar entertainment tropes to explore the deep, universal truths of the human experience.
