Koi na koi chahiye, pyaar karne wala. (Deewana, 1992, Shah Rukh Khan’s first Hindi film release)This unusual work of non-fiction travels from the drawing rooms of Jor Bagh to the forests of Jharkhand, across classes and communities. It poignantly reveals how Shah Rukh Khan appears as a recourse in many a teary-eyed moment triggered by the drudgery and ignominy of being a woman in modern India. While his image may serve as a means of escape in the plush homes of Lutyens, indulging in fandom becomes a form of protest amongst poor and working-class women. The ability to watch his films independent of the family is a freedom bestowed by employment. Espousing the virtues of Shah Rukh gives voice to women’s frustrated desires for independence and intimacy, their hopes for a friendlier masculinity in Indian men. Daydreams, posters and cinema tickets signal hidden peeves and protestations.

Through fifteen long years, talking to women across India as she researched the alarming decline in female employment, Shrayana Bhattacharya pieced together a fan club which turns to Shah Rukh in times of turbulence and heartache. None of the club’s members know one another, they’ll never meet. But this book tells its fascinating story.

Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh isn’t about Shah Rukh Khan, or at least, isn’t just about Shah Rukh Khan. Rather, it is a book about how generations of women have taken Shah Rukh to heart. The stories illustrate how Shah Rukh’s films, songs, interviews and characters – the stalkers and the lovers alike – are invoked to frame a feminine conversation on inequality within families, workplaces and modern romances.

Shrayana sheds light on the trajectories of the lives of a few Indian women as they travelled from the 1990s into the 2020s, with the ups and downs of a film star’s career graph for companionship. These journeys are as removed 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 who don’t have active Twitter handles, who are considered too ordinary to find mention in the news.

Keenly insightful, rigorously well-researched and deeply empathetic, and rife with references to the SRK films that have become such a key part of popular culture, Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh is a remarkable book that celebrates the actor’s extraordinary thirty-year career in Bollywood, and documents the decades of everyday struggles faced by the women who love him.