New Delhi: Raj Kapoor, Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan and Aamir Khan have been able to leverage their star power to create business empires and influence diplomatic ties with other countries. But women stars have been conspicuously absent from the list. “It is not like women weren’t big stars or that they did not have business ambitions, but they were not able to leverage their star power and set up business empires as the male stars,” said Swapnil Rai at the launch of her book, Networked Bollywood: How Star Power Globalized Bollywood Cinema .
The book is both a business history of the industry and its globalisation. The launch at India International Centre (IIC) on a rainy evening of 7 August saw students turn up. The panel discussion on star power and its global impact consisted of Rai, independent journalist and author Kaveree Bamzai, film journalist and author Aseem Chhabra, and associate professor at the Centre for Culture, Media and Governance, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi Vibodh Parthasarathi.
They all mentioned their favourite sections from the book and were especially intrigued by the gendered nature of star power in India. Can actors famous on OTT platforms create their own empires? What made Raj Kapoor a bigger star and the Soviet Union’s darling, while Nargis couldn’t even get an escort to the airport there? Can Priyanka Chopra establish complete global dominion? These were a few questions the panellists discussed. Shah Rukh Khan was recently given .