Secret Superstar

Secret Superstar centres on Insia, a fourteen-year-old schoolgirl from Gujarat with a gift for singing and songwriting. Her strict, authoritarian father forbids her from performing, and the household is marked by domestic abuse, so she keeps her music hidden. She records a song on guitar while covering her face and posts it online; the video turns her into an overnight internet sensation, with her identity concealed behind the disguise. The story follows the widening gap between her anonymous fame and the life she cannot escape at home.

The film was directed by Advait Chandan, who also wrote the screenplay, marking his first feature as director and the start of a filmography that continued with Laal Singh Chaddha and Loveyapa. Zaira Wasim plays Insia, with Aamir Khan, who produced alongside Kiran Rao, appearing as Shakti Kumar; Meher Vij, Raj Arjun, Kabir Sajid Shaikh and Farrukh Jaffar complete the main cast. It runs 150 minutes.

Released in October 2017, the Indian production is a drama with music at its centre. On IMDb it holds 7.7/10 from roughly 32,000 votes, while on TMDB it stands at 7.3/10 from about 205 votes, so the two audiences are broadly aligned, with the larger sample only slightly more favourable.