Transnational Rites of Passage, National Stardom: Irrfan Khan’s Presence in Hollywood Cinema

Abstract

This essay explores how Irrfan Khan’s presence in blockbuster Hollywood franchise films like The Amazing Spiderman (Webb in The amazing spiderman. Sony Pictures, 2012) and Jurassic World (Trevorrow in Jurassic World. Universal Pictures, 2015) has established him as a bonafide movie star in India, while simultaneously giving him global recognition as an actor. Using Meeuf Russell and Raphael Raphael’s conception of a fluid transnational stardom as an intellectual springboard, this essay distinguishes between Khan’s Bollywood stardom and Hollywood recognition and acceptance. Khan’s presence in Hollywood cinema resulted in two concomitant but distinct (at times converging) trajectories: one is working with reputed international auteurs like Danny Boyle and Ang Lee and the other is that of experimenting in art house/independent and crossover Bollywood cinema. In both trajectories, Khan leverages the global popularity and circulation of Hollywood cinema. Elizabeth Ezra and Terry Rowden’s idea that Hollywood is transnational since its originary state is crucial in understanding Khan’s mobility as an actor navigating the divergent global cinematic cultures. Through a critical reading of Khan’s performances in The Amazing Spiderman, Jurassic World and Inferno (dir. Howard in Inferno. Sony Pictures, 2016), this essay argues how Khan continues to operate as an “international other” in Hollywood, who is recognized by his international audiences. But this recognition translates into transnational stardom in India where he becomes a symbolic cross-cultural contact zone with international cinema for his Indian audiences. Khan’s transition from recognition to stardom creates an extremely compelling liminality where he at once becomes a nominal and powerful cultural figure in two distinct geo-political locations but located within the same chronotope. Natasa Durovicova defines transnational cinema as characterized by “a relative openness to modalities of geopolitical forms” (Durovicova in In World cinemas, transnational perspectives. Routledge, New York, London, p. x, 2010). This essay tries to establish Hollywood as the geo-political (and economic) centre of the transnational flow of commodities and cultures in global cinema that continues to function as the legitimizing device for local (national) stardom and fan cultures.