Tharasu is a Tamil language weekly magazine started in 1985 in Chennai,[1] with a focus on politics.
[2] It focused on corruption and "political gossip" but also covered local village-level issues.
[1][2] Instead it used low quality production methods in order to be affordable to villagers.
[2] Publishing has been a dangerous undertaking for people involved in this new tabloid genre.
Staff from all the tabloids operated against a background of police raids and sometimes lethal arrests.