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understood in relation to this larger anxiety surrounding Bollywood and the
Indian state’s inability to tackle piracy.
But there is another dimension to copying, remixing, and circulating that
this “passport” ignores. I am referring, of course, to the vast range of fan prac-
tices that shape the circulation of Bollywood content around the world. For
example, srkpagali.net is an immensely popular website that archives videos
of Bollywood star Shahrukh Khan—clips from his films, television advertise-
ments, awards shows, and interviews. The small group of fans who manage
this website have also, through a networked effort that drew in other popular
fan-maintained websites and blogs, subtitled many of these videos for the
benefit of those who do not understand Hindi. Needless to say, srkpagali.net
is part of a world-encircling pirate infrastructure defined by easy and cheap
access to technologies of media reproduction. However, to approach an ini-
tiative like srkpagali.net simply in terms of the market logics of companies
like Saavn.com or in relation to the question of piracy that defines industry
and state discourse, is to misunderstand the nature of participatory culture
that surrounds Bollywood. It is this dimension of Bollywood’s presence in
the world that I address in the final chapter.