Secret Superstar can provide an insight

Sunday afternoon, my Indian pals and I watched Hindi movie Secret Superstar at a Beijing cinema that was jampacked - almost 90 percent of the audience was Chinese. A straw poll on my way out confirmed my observation: they enjoyed, and were moved by, the inspirational, feel-good, if a bit melodramatic, film.

One of the reasons is, of course, the growing popularity of Indian matinee idol Aamir Khan in China. The actor-filmmaker not long ago created waves with his 3 Idiots and Dangal. So much so that when President Xi Jinping met Narendra Modi in June last year, he told the Indian prime minister he watched Dangal and enjoyed it.

Khan stars in a cameo in Secret Superstar that highlights the dreams, aspirations, thought processes and value systems of digital-age, social media-loving urban teenagers.