Darshan, selfies, and the celebritisation of Bollywood stars in Australia

This commentary explores Bollywood celebrity events within the Indian-Australian diaspora, examining how traditional practices like darshan have been adapted to contemporary fan engagements. Darshan, a Hindu practice of seeing and being seen by a deity, is reinterpreted in Bollywood, where celebrities are venerated with comparable devotion. These encounters, extended into digital spaces, offer diasporic fans opportunities to affirm their cultural identity and self-promotion while contributing to the construction of their idols’ public personas. The concept of celebritisation explains how Bollywood stars become cultural icons through fan interactions and digital storytelling. Platforms such as Instagram, Facebook, and X facilitate these connections, allowing fans to co- create narratives that intertwine personal experiences with collective identities. Celebrities, in turn, curate their “public private selves” to maintain visibility while appearing accessible. As digital tools reshape engagement, the concept of cyber-darshan captures how Bollywood fandom merges traditional practices with modern technologies, offering fans both connection and visibility. The increasing portrayal of physical proximity, such as selfies with arms around celebrities, signals a shift from reverence to mediated intimacy. This shift enables fans to balance admiration with partici-pation, as Bollywood stars become central to diasporic cultural life, connecting heritage, identity, and everyday experience through mediated interactions.