The Conversation Series: The SRK Mythos: Men, Money, Misogyny, and the Struggles of the Indian Woman

Shah Rukh Khan has been the bellwether for romantic aspirations and lived realities of millions of Indian women who grew up being entranced by his films. His movies and his public persona have inspired women from varied backgrounds to dream big and transcend the drudgery of their mundane lives.

Is the hero worship of Shah Rukh Khan by Indian women just fandom or is it a rebellion against social customs and norms? How has the actor shaped the lives and loves, and the interior as well as the circumscribed public lives of women? Is the desire for intimacy, and the dreams of female independence, metaphorically pinned on posters of Shah Rukh Khan’s movies? Has Shah Rukh Khan inspired fan-women to attain social mobility and financial autonomy? 

Our speaker, an economist at the World Bank and an author, has extensively researched the economic and personal trajectories of India’s women. She uses the sisterhood of SRK fandom as a device to delve into deep social, cultural, and gender issues. Integrating anthropology, sociology, and economics, she will discuss how women with different social identities survive at the intersection of power and patriarchy.