The Hindu Lit for Life 2023 | In conversation with Shrayana Bhattacharya, economist and author of Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh

Shrayana Bhattacharya will speak at The Hindu Lit for Life in Chennai on February 25, 2023.

Shrayana Bhattacharya’s Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh: India’s Lonely Young Women and the Search for Intimacy and Independence is one of those interdisciplinary books that defy easy categorisation. 

It is primarily a book about Indian women, their aspirations, their systemically undervalued labour, and the other socio-economic inequities they continue to be subjected to. The narrative just happens to be strung together by Shah Rukh Khan fandom. Like the projectionist of yore bounced images off a wall for our viewing pleasure, these women project their hopes and desires onto their favourite star’s movies. 

As the author, who will be a part of  The Hindu Lit for Life in Chennai on February 25, says in the preface, “My primary interest is to shed light on the trajectories of a few Indian women as they travelled from the 1990s into the 2020s with a film star for companionship. These journeys are as far from feminist principles as Shah Rukh’s films are. Their politics may not live up to progressive ideals. But the messy beliefs on display serve as important guides to understand the lived experiences of Indian women without active Twitter handles, those considered too ordinary to find mention in the news.”

The book has recently been translated to Hindi as well. “I remember when the book was first released in November 2022, the way it was discussed was quite funny,” says Bhattacharya, an economist with the World Bank. “The people who’ve blurbed the book are well-known economists. Despite that, some people thought the book was erotic fan fiction. Perhaps because they saw Shah Rukh’s name on the cover? It took them a while to register that the book is actually about gender and economics, and that the actor is an entry point, a research method.”

Channelling SRK’s fandom

The ‘research method’ bit was especially important because it became a way for Bhattacharya to connect with the young women (especially those belonging to villages or really small towns) she was interviewing. Also, the author feels, her own status as a single woman, living alone and earning her own money, became a point of connection for some. But the one thing that was a constant was the instant likeability of the Shah Rukh fandom. With time and patience and slow, unhurried engagement, she began to win them over.

Shahrukh Khan fan club members at a theatre in Guwahati on the day of the release of ‘Pathaan’, January 25, 2023.
| Photo Credit:
PTI

“These women connected with me because I could speak the language of Shah Rukh Khan,” Bhattacharya says. “I am a believer in slow, laboured, gradual engagement. And I’m very clear about the fact that this is how I want to write my next book as well. I want it to be longitudinal. When I met these women, it was for a research project but I wasn’t tied to a deadline and that difference in approach is significant.”

What of the man himself, then? With Pathaan, Khan has just scored the biggest hit of his career. His fan clubs have never been more vocal and there’s every chance that his next film,  Jawan, which sees him teaming up with Tamil stalwarts Vijay Sethupathi and Nayanthara, will be an even bigger success. According to Bhattacharya, most of the fan videos shot around  Pathaan feature mostly men, and when she watched the movie herself at a 7 a.m. show in Saket, the hall had “maybe five or six women”.

The matinee idol

“I just want to clarify that there’s a large — though not as vocal — Shah Rukh fan base among women and while they’re happy at his success, they also hope he will do a romantic film again soon. Someone recently told me that Shah Rukh’s scenes with Dimple Kapadia are how you know he’s an irrepressible matinee idol — no man in the Indian defence establishment would have been okay with a woman wielding that much power!”

Significantly,  Pathaan also shows the superstar acknowledging his age and the fact that younger, perhaps hungrier competitors are circling the throne. However, as the post-credits scene with Salman Khan makes it clear, the King is in no mood to slow down just yet.

“I particularly enjoyed the little hat-tips to middle age in  Pathaan,” Bhattacharya says. “The coffees and the back pain and the painkillers. I’ve always said that Shah Rukh Khan exists to make South Asian men feel bad about themselves and even at 58 or 60, he will continue to do that.”

The writer and journalist is working on his first book of non-fiction.