Quratulain RehbarOn August 1, one of Bollywood’s most popular superstars, Shah Rukh Khan, was named the best actor at India’s National Film Awards, the country’s highest state honour for cinema.
The 59-year-old – adored by millions in India and beyond as SRK – won this award after 33 years in the film industry, for his performance in Jawan, a high-octane action thriller in which he plays dual roles.
The National Film Awards are presented each year by the government of India. Spanning categories from acting and direction to music and production, they are considered the pinnacle of official recognition for filmmaking in India.
For decades, SRK has enjoyed a rare space in Indian popular culture, a Muslim star at the very heart of the national imagination, whose appeal has cut across religion, caste, class, and region. In a deeply divided country, his success has often been read as a hopeful symbol of secular coexistence.
For Sukriti R. Justin, 31, a Mumbai-based fan, who has worked in the film industry for nearly a decade, SRK finally getting the recognition felt “personal” to her.
“He is an actor with incredible talent and dedication, and I truly admire his journey and craft,” she tells TRT World.
“Whether it is him running towards the camera or striking that open-arm pose, or a close-up scene where his eyes do the talking, he has the ability to stir an emotion among people. He is not just an actor but an icon,” she says.
For Noor Fatima, a fan based in Lucknow city, Muslim fans like her live their dream through his success.
“SRK has been unapologetically vocal about his religion and many of his fans look up to him. (They) also want to live their dreams without compromising on their religion,” she tells TRT World.
Vilification of Muslim artists
Coming at a time when the ruling Hindu right-wing has spent a decade vilifying the country's Muslim identity, including targeting the three Khans of Bollywood – Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan, and Aamir Khan – SRK’s recognition feels both triumphant and unsettling to his many fans in India.
The actors have dominated the industry for their diversity and ability to create an aura on screen. All of them have also been popular for their ability to represent India on the global stage during the time when India’s economy began to rise.
But so did the controversies around them: In 2015, SRK was called “anti-national” after speaking about intolerance in India. In 2021, his son Aryan Khan’s arrest on drug charges, later dismissed, was seen by some as politically motivated. In fact, the movie Jawan faced boycott calls a day before its theatrical release.
Right-leaning leaders, including Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, suggested SRK to “go to Pakistan” and compared him with Hafiz Saeed, an accused in the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks, reflecting a broader Hindu nationalist hostility that the BJP denies.
Their films have also faced boycott campaigns — from SRK’s Pathaan to Aamir’s Laal Singh Chaddha and Salman’s Bajrangi Bhaijaan — often over perceived slights to Hindu sentiments or alleged “pro-Pakistan” messages.
For the other Khans, the vilification has been similar: in 2015, Aamir Khan was widely attacked and faced brand boycotts after expressing concern over rising intolerance, while Salman Khan has been targeted for supporting Pakistani artists and maintaining ties with Muslim colleagues during periods of heightened India–Pakistan tension.
For those who watch India’s communal politics closely, it also raised uncomfortable questions:
What does it mean for a Muslim megastar to be celebrated in a nation where Muslim citizens face bulldozers, incarceration, lynchings, and systemic erasure?
When Jawan was released, some fans and critics saw it as offering a subtle resistance to India’s dominant political narrative.
“It was a bit of both — subtle resistance, alignment with the ongoing political mood, all in sync with his star image,” says a film critic based in Kolkata anonymously.
He tells TRT World that SRK has long kept his Islamic identity visible “as much as possible within India’s constitutionally granted secular parameters,” both on screen and in public appearances – from openly invoking Allah in interviews to playing Muslim characters, including one persecuted for his religion in Chak De India.
But he also says that SRK getting the national award means “nothing more than tokenism”.
“What matters is how those in power in Delhi actually treat minorities on the ground. The rest is optics and obfuscation,” he tells TRT World.
Waseem Ahad, a scholar who focuses on popular cinema and Muslim identity, says the award cannot be understood “without placing it in the context of Shah Rukh Khan’s religious identity and the current political climate”.
“You have to see SRK’s Muslim identity and then the larger ground of the country. For over a decade, the atmosphere has been violently hostile towards Muslims; legally, politically, culturally — and yet India’s biggest Muslim stars, including the three Khans, have avoided making strong public statements about their community," he tells TRT World.
But he also adds that “their Muslim identity has long been a liability in a Hindu-majoritarian market, so they work to downplay it while ensuring they do nothing to hurt majority sentiment.”
According to him, the state, whether BJP or any other party, can present them as “icons when needed, or smear them as pro-Pakistan or jihadi when convenient.”
“At other times, they are showcased as symbols of India’s secular diversity, especially for overseas Muslim audiences….It’s all optics,” he tells TRT World.
While Ahad focuses on the symbolic use of Muslim superstars, other analysts highlight the deeper power dynamics between Bollywood and the state. They argue the relationship is less about his stardom and more about how cultural brands are managed, controlled, and deployed within India’s political economy.
According to political analyst Asim Ali, Modi’s BJP has pursued a strategy of dominance by co-opting or taming every major institution. Bollywood, he notes, may hold cultural sway but operates within financial and political networks that are easy for the state to control.
“SRK should be seen less as an individual and more as a brand, with a transactional relationship to the state,” Ali tells TRT World. “The BJP can raise the costs of non-compliance for ‘Brand SRK’ at will, costs that are even higher for Muslim stars. The party has the capacity to completely destroy such a brand.”
SRK, Ali argues, poses little threat to the BJP as his core audience, the Indian middle class, is largely pro-government, giving the ruling party most of the leverage.
The shift in Bollywood
Bollywood, over the past decade, has seen a marked shift toward overtly nationalistic movies, with big-budget productions foregrounding the Indian military, historical Hindu figures, and themes aligned with the ruling BJP’s cultural agenda.
Films like Uri: The Surgical Strike, The Kashmir Files, and The Kerala Story (which also won a National award this time) have been celebrated by the ruling party, while more nuanced or critical works often face boycott calls.
The National Film Award, once regarded as a barometer of artistic excellence, in recent years have been accused of reflecting these political currents and rewarding films that reinforce dominant narratives while overlooking or marginalising works that question them.
Critics also point out the irony that the same National Film Awards jury that honoured Shah Rukh Khan also awarded The Kerala Story — a film widely criticised for promoting Islamophobic stereotypes.
The film’s portrayal of Hindu women allegedly coerced into converting to Islam and joining the Daesh terrorist group is part of a broader political narrative, one that has been repeatedly questioned and fact-checked for its exaggerated claims.
For them, celebrating both a Muslim superstar and a film accused of vilifying Muslims is not a sign of balance, but an example of how the state selectively uses culture — rewarding symbols that suit its political moment, even when those symbols sit in sharp contradiction.
"We must be careful not to confuse the visibility of a Muslim superstar with real power, representation, or resistance,” says Sabika Abbas, a poet and human rights activist.
“Especially when the same state honouring him is also amplifying openly Islamophobic propaganda like The Kerala Story,” she tells TRT World.
