Shah Rukh Khan: Journey from charisma to celebrity

Abstract

This essay studies the particular brand of Shah Rukh Khan (SRK) as he achieves superstardom in the Hindi film industry and as a thought leader, earning him the moniker Badshah (king). By transcending ossifying gender roles and ethnic-religious divisions might SRK be the quintessential Indian man who stands for the nation (Cayla in Advertising Soc Rev 9(2), 2008)? Or is he a modern metrosexual whose identity is hybrid? This accounts for the dialectical tension that arises from the ‘celebrity’ of SRKas global businesses boldly recruit cinephile audiences as consumer-patriots of neoliberal India transforming dated identities of citizen-patriots in postcolonial India. What follows then is the provocation that the study of celebrity is a very particular cultural formation that Graeme Turner believes, “is a productive location for the analysis of cultural shifts around gender, race or nationality” (Celebr Stud 1(1), p.13, 2010). Lastly, the essay explores how SRK recoups his image as charismatic actor and leader, not just as a brand ambassador of multinational commodities. Through ethnographic insight I propose that in SRK-defined films such as My Name is Khan global Muslim audiences find a way to talk about and understand their own experience of being Muslim during the Global War on Terror.