Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan isn't just a heartthrob for Indian women. He's a symbol of their autonomy.

• Shah Rukh Khan is one of the biggest stars in Bollywood with a career spanning three decades.
• For Indian women, he's not only a movie star but a symbol of their own autonomy.

Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan has been one of the biggest movie stars in the world for 30 years.

Alongside the likes of Priyanka Chopra Jonas and Amitabh Bachchan, the actor is one of India's most recognizable exports around the world. Khan is beloved across genders and generations in India, but for women in particular he is not just a swoon-worthy movie star, but also an emblem of autonomy over their lives, careers and even romantic desires.

"Women relied on Shah Rukh when they found the real world and all its pandemics and practicalities inhospitable," writes author Shrayana Bhattacharya in her book, "Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh: India's Lonely Young Women and the Search for Intimacy and Independence."

The book examines the desires, dreams and difficulties of a diverse group of women, who are divided by religion, caste, and class, but united by their love for Khan.

According to Bhattacharya, in loving and seeking Khan, women are unknowingly indulging in a silent act of rebellion.

Shah Rukh Khan is a unifying force across economic divide

Bhattacharya noticed the unusual ally that Khan had become for women across economic strata when she was surveying home-based working women in 2006.

These women grew bored of the same questions about wages, and so she began asking them about their favourite actors. The love for Khan was palpable amongst them, and it was during this time that she understood that fandom was, in fact, a unique display of economic independence.

In a sociological and economic study that spanned over 15 years, Bhattacharya explored the pain and pleasure of Indian women, and how she says Khan eases the former and provides the latter.

"It started as an accident, but soon I became conscious of the fact that fandom is a proxy for women's economic power and quality of life," Bhattacharya explains to Insider. "In 'Seeking Shah Rukh,' they weren't only seeking the romantic love that he embodied, but also to simply watch their favourite actor on screen."

K Jeshi, a journalist from Tamil Nadu, tells Insider that she loves Khan because "he loves women — the way he speaks to women, both on-screen and off-screen is beautiful."

In movies such as "Kal Ho Na Ho" (2003), "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" (1995), and "Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham" (2001), Khan weeps messily, finds himself working in the household, fasts for the woman he loves, and looks at them with awe instead of with lust. The latter is a trait that Devangi Vaishnav, a physiotherapist from Gujarat, finds particularly admirable.

"He has never maligned a woman's integrity. He has never been derogatory, or lascivious, even in chauvinistic scenes, there's something about his gaze that makes him honourable," Vaishnav says.

Off-screen, Khan, too, appears to uphold these values.

"I think the sheer regard he holds for women is admirable," says Shaheera Anwar, an entertainment journalist from Pakistan. "He was one of the first people to start putting the name of the actress before his name, which is remarkable."

Bhattacharya notes how women tend to put Khan's virtue above everything else and ignore the casual sexism that his films sometimes depict, which is why Khan "may not be a feminist icon, but he is certainly a female icon," she says.

Khan, Bhattacharya argues, unites women across caste and class in India by allowing them to pose questions on masculinity, money, network wealth, pleasure, and love.

What women see in Shah Rukh Khan: vulnerability and respect

"There's a certain working-class quality to him that has stayed back, even after all the success and fame," Aseem Chhabra, an author and film academic, says of Khan's appeal. "He retains the values that he gained from his parents. He talks about the death of his parents with such profound vulnerability, in a space where being forthcoming is a rare sight, and that in return allows his audience to know and love him."

Prachi Verma, a civil rights lawyer from Jaipur, says: "Women in India have to deal with plenty, be it pay disparity, domestic violence, sexual assault, lack of education, and more, so when they say they want a man like Shah Rukh, they are actually just asking for dignity in both love and labour."

Zara Chowdhary, a teacher at the University of Wisconsin, was a post-production supervisor and assistant director at Red Chillies, Khan's production company, when she was given three times her salary as a bonus after the success of "Om Shanti Om."

"He treats the crew on his sets with so much love and respect, that it's inspiring. He is willing to give love, to get love, which makes him who he is," Chowdhary says.

Gunjan S, from Chandigarh, who runs a social-media marketing firm, adds: "He made me a dreamer, be it about success or love. South Asian women as it is, have quite a regressive upbringing, and in such space, Shah Rukh gave me an escape."

How Shah Rukh Khan reflects women seeking their own agency

It's not all romance for these women: "The daughters don't want to marry Khan, they want to be him — they want his success, fame, and autonomy," says Bhattacharya, adding that every fan of Khan conjures up their own image of him that resembles their lives.

"In talking about Shah Rukh, these women were actually talking about themselves — their lives, their troubles, their aspirations, and their desire for financial and emotional autonomy," Bhattacharya continues.

Khan, then, is a lexicon for women to express their own wants and needs — and Bhattacharya's book isn't so much about Khan as it is a manifesto, of sorts, for women in India tapping into their own star power.

As for Khan, Bhattacharya says: "How many icons can claim to be a research method? Especially if it is about womanhood. How many men can become a language of expressing aspiration for millions of women?"