Three Ghaziabad sisters’ act of jumping to their death after being banned from watching Korean content has highlighted, through heartbreaking tragedy, the increasing hold of all things Korean on young minds across the country.
The Hallyu or “Korean Wave” that hit the world, including India, a few years ago has grown into a deluge, sweeping tweens, teens and twenty-somethings into the embrace of K-drama and K-pop, Korean cinema, fashion, skincare and food, and much more. And many of their elders too.
The latest on the list is KPop Demon Hunters, rendered Netflix’s most-watched title of all time by millions of repeat watchers and accumulating over 482 million views (about 9.4 billion minutes) in its first six months.
The film about a band of young girls who churn out music by day and transform into vigilante demon hunters by night has taken viewers — some as young as five — by storm.
South Korean rapper PSY performs his K-pop mega hit Gangnam Style. File picture
The songs are being sung around the world, and its heroines — Rumi, Mira and Zoey — have become inspirations for young girls (and not just for their fashion). KPop Demon Hunters-themed parties are the rage.
“I like all things Korean, with KPop Demon Hunters my favourite. My friends and I sing the songs and talk about how much we love and follow Rumi, Mira and Zoey,” says seven-year-old Aador Ray, whose love of Korean fare includes an insatiable appetite for the Korean cream cheese bun.
K-culture’s inroads into India, however, began long ago. For many, it all started with BTS, the South Korean boy band that catapulted to fame with music that told raw, unfiltered stories of personal and professional struggle and mental health issues.
Some others, like Rishika Nath, 20, discovered K-pop much earlier.
“For me, PSY’s Gangnam Style was definitely the entry point. Then I got to know of many other K-pop groups,” she says.
Gangnam Style became the first music video to reach 1 billion views on YouTube in December 2012.
Rishika, who has followed Korean pop culture for almost a decade, says: “There’s definitely a strong marketing strategy, but social media too has played a key role…. They have tapped into the youth by leveraging social media buzz.”
For the Ghaziabad sisters — aged 12, 14 and 16 — Korean content had unfortunately become an addiction, providing them with an emotional refuge and a retreat from the outer world whose loss they couldn’t cope with.
They played task-based Korean games, listened to Korean music, watched Korean web series and cartoons, and wanted to visit Korea, their father has told the police.
It’s not all about adolescent craze, though.
In 2020, Parasite — a tragicomic look at the social and economic divide within capitalist society — took home four Academy Awards, including Best Picture, the first non-English-language winner in that category in the Oscars’ then 92-year history.
K-pop has anyway been a great ambassador for Korean culture. Besides the Grammy honours and Guinness World Record feats, appearances at the UN as national ambassadors and packed-house shows around the world, BTS has been credited with generating up to 0.5 per cent of their country’s economy.
As for K-dramas, they have been raking it in for most of the major OTT platforms, from Netflix to Disney+ and Prime Video, with fans known to binge entire seasons in one sitting.
Anuva Das, 22, who has become a K-drama enthusiast over the years, says: “Initially, it was difficult to keep up with the subtitles as I did not watch foreign shows at that time. But slowly, I started watching more and more K-dramas, which also led me to explore content in other languages.”
Anuva, who has a niche interest in queer K-dramas, especially the “Boys’ Love” genre, thinks K-drama has contributed greatly to queer inclusivity.
“The natural, effortless companionship between two men, the debunking of rough-and-tough ‘male-ness’ stereotypes to make way for emotionally tuned, communicative men who do not assert dominance but lead together as partners, brings in a breath of fresh air,” she says.
Shreya Ghosh, a postgraduate student of sociology, believes that male K-pop idols have become irresistible to young girls by allowing them to experience a kind of masculinity that is otherwise blocked out by patriarchal cultures.
“They confidently flaunt gender-fluid outfits, integrating skirts, lace and floral patterns into their performances, with heavy makeup, which challenges the traditional notion of masculinity,” she says.
“They are not afraid to cry on camera, which debunks the myth that ‘Boys don’t cry’. All this attracts young girls, because with these men, femininity is not looked at as a weakness.”
“Soul in Seoul” is all very well, but if it’s Calcutta, can munch madness be far behind?
Sayantani Maitra, 22, explains why Korean food has become an overnight global hit.
“Ramen or kimbap, kimchi or bibimbap, Korean food stands out for its wide range of flavours and the presentations it can produce with the same, everyday ingredients,” she says.
“Rice sometimes becomes a wrap, sometimes a full meal in different sauces, and at others, a companion to soups. Cabbage, marinated with several ingredients, becomes the all-time-favourite kimchi, which simply goes with everything.”
With Korean beauty and fashion, too, it’s all about variety — different kinds of makeup, different styles of outfits — Sayantani says.
“In this age of social media, we all want to see something new that can instantly become a trend, but also break the mould the very next day. That is what makes K-culture so appealing for me.”
Calcutta restaurateurs say Korean cuisine has been featuring strongly in the city’s famed cosmopolitan kitchen over the past four to five years, with fried chicken, corn dogs, ramens and bibimbaps among the favourites.
Raja Mukherjee, who runs an advertising agency, started a Korean takeaway joint, Kimchii Kitchen, at Deshapriya Park in late 2023. Within a year, he had opened a branch — a proper diner — at Santoshpur off EM Bypass.
He had got his big idea when “I saw my son and his friends hooked on K-pop and K-drama”.
“The tangy, salty-sweetness that some Korean dishes offer finds a natural acceptance here. The pricing is also very street-foodish, very affordable,” he says.
Kyong Kin, co-owner of popular Korean food chain Cafe Tov, said his Survey Park outlet, which has around 15 to 20 seats, is full even on weekdays. “Most of the diners are teenagers or people in their early 20s. They see Korean cuisine as an extension of their fondness for Korean culture.”
From the neighbourhoods around Rabindra Sarobar, Deshapriya Park, Santoshpur and the adjoining Survey Park to Salt Lake and New Town, the city has witnessed the emergence of several Korean food joints, some of them on mini-trucks.
Even a few years ago, gochujang (chili pepper paste), the heart of Korean cuisine, could only be found in New Market. Now, e-commerce portals are flooded with gochujang and similar ingredients.
Additional reporting by Debraj Mitra