On Monday, around the world, South Asian fans tuned in to watch an exciting moment unfold at the Met Gala — the arrivals of Shah Rukh Khan, a Bollywood star so popular he is referred to as King Khan, and Diljit Dosanjh, a record-breaking artist and actor who goes by Diljit. It was the first appearance for both at what is widely considered fashion’s most iconic red carpet.
But the mood for some quickly dampened when it became clear that the South Asian superstars were not receiving the level of respect that their fans felt they deserved, especially because both Mr. Khan and Diljit have cultivated international followings. Mr. Khan was the subject of an episode of David Letterman’s Netflix interview series in 2019 and, since 2020, Diljit has consistently topped global music charts and has collaborated with Western stars like Sia and Ed Sheeran.
In an interview on the red carpet with Mr. Khan and the designer who dressed him, Sabyasachi Mukherjee, the co-hosts of Vogue’s livestream, Teyana Taylor and Ego Nwodim, seemed largely unaware of who Mr. Khan was.
Then Ms. Nwodim gestured toward Mr. Mukherjee and asked: “And this is the designer tonight?”
After a short, awkward exchange about whether Mr. Khan felt nervous to walk the Met’s steps, Mr. Mukherjee jumped in to point out that “Shah Rukh Khan is probably one of the most famous men in the world.”
While not as famous in the United States as some of the night’s attendees, Mr. Mukherjee was not exaggerating. Mr. Khan, who has been an actor for over three decades, is something akin to a phenomenon inside and outside India. In 2023, Time magazine named him among the world’s most influential people and in 2015, Forbes estimated that his earnings make him possibly the biggest movie star in the world.
The creator behind DietSabya, an Indian fashion and Bollywood celebrity-focused Instagram account that has over 500,000 followers, said in an email that the Met Gala red carpet exchange was “a hot mess.”
Speaking on condition of anonymity, as their identity is not public, the creator said they thought that kind of disrespect would not have happened to anyone else of Mr. Khan’s stature. “Not to a global icon who has carried an entire industry on his back for over three decades.”
Others were also quick to express their disappointment online. “The carpet was lucky he walked on it!” the creator Jeremy Franco said in an Instagram video. That video has been viewed nearly three million times.
Hours after Mr. Khan’s interview, Diljit, who has sold out arenas across North America during his tour, appeared on the red carpet in a culturally significant outfit. The Vogue livestream focused on him for a few seconds before cutting away. Ms. Taylor and Ms. Nwodim did not interview him.
“My heart broke by how quickly the camera panned away from him,” Jasleen Singh said in a TikTok video that has over 128,000 views. “I understand that a lot of people in the United States and the photographers and the journalists might not know who he is, but that doesn’t mean that he’s not as significant as the other people.”
When reached for comment, a representative for Vogue said that Ms. Nwodim had referred during the livestream to the significance of Mr. Khan being the first Bollywood star to appear at the event, and added, “We have over 400 guests attend the gala and only publish about 25 independent clips from our livestream to YouTube.” The representative noted that Vogue was thrilled to include Mr. Khan’s clip, and that “it was certainly not intentional” for the livestream to cut away from Diljit so quickly.
