I would gladly recommend this book to those who are into popular culture. It's mostly about how popular culture from the global south has gained foothold around the world. Discussion of each popular culture mentioned in the book would require many books. This book is a bit short to include all the details but it's still a good introduction and has some interesting findings when highlighting the spread of these popular cultures.

The first section of the book is about Bollywood. I'm pretty well-versed with the basics of Bollywood so that part is just fine. The trickier part is the recent development. It's probably hard for people who don't follow closely enough to understand the rightward tilt described in the book. (But as somebody who follows quite closely and agrees with the author, I feel weirdly comforted and assured seeing some worrying observations put into words.)

The gold is really in the second part. Fatima Bhutto explained Turkish TV drama, dizi, which is huge and being broadcast and remade far beyond Turkey. It was very interesting to learn about this thing you have not heard about. I'm now very interested in checking out the dizis mentioned in the book.

Things I don't necessarily like..... one or two small mistakes with facts in the first part on Bollywood. And the conclusion that the next big pop culture will be coming from China.... It's a sensible guess but I have my own bias. (And the fact that there's no major Chinese popular culture export up to now is telling enough.)

It's a quick read and you can even pick just the part you're interested in and read selectively. Would highly recommend it.

Enjoyed the Bollywood part and the hilarious footnotes.

Fatima Bhutto's exploration into the ongoing destabilization of American superiority in pop culture is an interesting, feet-on-the-ground look at two of the most prominent forms that have swept non-English speaking countries, Bollywood and Dizi, and while K-Pop is in the title its inclusion feels more like an addendum than a solid part of the work as a whole, excluded only to an epilogue in comparison the 160 pages that cover the former two subjects that make up the majority of the text.

It's very interesting, Bhutto charts the history of 21st Century Bollywood cinema with an eye that highlights the way it is hindered and aided by the increasingly powerful far-right presence in India, and the compromised situation that an industry built on nepo-babies finds itself in when faced with something more abjectly dark. The conflicted love and awareness of form is familiar to all those that find themselves interested in Indian cinema. It's from this point that we get an interesting day with SRK and then head towards Turkey to learn about the Dizi industry.

I was aware of but intimately familiar with the Dizi phenomena before reading this book and the insight it has supplied me, (as well as points into Pakistani television) have fascinated me and bulked up my watchlist. As with Bollywood, Bhutto does well to contextualize the rise of Dizi with the wider political situation surrounding not just Turkey but other Turkic countries, offering great insight into the lack of importance in appeasing English-speaking audiences and the struggles dramas face while trying to be engaging and, often, conservative in values.

An excellent addition to the Columbia Global Reports, New Kings of the World” focuses on the cases studies of the three entertainment behemoths that while lightly influenced by American culture at times, are unique in the markets that they arise from: Bollywood movies, Dizi serials, and K-Pop music.

As someone who watches Bollywood movies, Dizi serials and listens to K-Pop occasionally, Bhutto does an excellent job with the linkages between development and the current politic of the nations of India and Turkey, emerging second world nations that are flexing their soft power in their regions of influence and surpassing the United States in areas of entertainment and pop culture that have been traditional fiefdoms for Western entertainment.

As a member of the Desi diaspora, Bollywood movies and music are one of the earliest and easiest connections that I can retain to the subcontinent and culture - granted, a culture that is seen through a specific lens and trope to be packaged and utilized to be an ideal of what I experience and see at home and in my community.

The Turkish Dizi, while a great avenue to pick up the Turkish language, also provides much needed familiarity as a practicing a Muslim. While most Dizi showcase secular Turks who are understood for the most part to the be culturally Muslim, the faith is rarely shown from a practicing perspective - but the themes are taken from the Qur’an, the Hadith, Sunnah, and religious practices developed by the Ottomans and the Turks to fit their society - still packaged better and more accessible even as an American Muslim Desi watching them with subtitles.

Though the book only covers K-Pop towards the epilogue, and most of the book is dedicated to Bollywood, it is a good gateway book for the subject, and I enjoyed the critical analysis and linkage to Indian and Turkish politics as I watched these mediums (especially Dizi such as Hercai, Sen Cal Kapimi, Sefirin Kizi, Erkenci Kus, etc)

Thank you to the publisher for providing me for an advance copy of the book to read and review.

In New Kings of the World, Bhutto takes us on a tour of the three cultural phenomena that are poised to overthrow the US's worldwide intellectual dominance. Although US music and fashion still maintain a large share of the market, youth populations in other areas of the world struggle to reconcile the disconnect between popular culture and their own cultures. K-pop, dizis (Turkish dramas) and Bollywood provide a solution to the problem by allowing people to consume media with themes and values more similar to their own. From Shah Rukh Khan fan clubs in South America to dizi viewing parties among the Syrian refugee population in Lebanon these "New Kings of the World" are a solid middle ground, and in many cases, they're an example of how other countries can create entertainment industries without abandoning their traditions.

Bhutto's book was well-written and informative. She includes interviews not only from those making the media but also from those consuming it. Because the situation is not black and white, Bhutto explains the politics surrounding the different forms of media, debunking the notion that "west is best" while also listing reasons some people might still believe that it is.

I would like to give New Kings of the World a higher rating, but while illustrating the relationship between culture and religion, Bhutto writes that Muslims talk to God /through/ the Prophet or other intermediaries such as saints. This is not only incorrect, it's a grave sin in Islam. I'm not the person who believes in one particular version of Islam, but there are certain things that are expressly forbidden and talking "through" someone is one of them. This passage made me doubt the validity of the research, but enough of the information lined up with my own research that I trust the book overall and I even recommend it to others.

Interesting topic but not that well written.