Aryan Khan says he is comfortable being the butt of his own jokes. “Take a joke on yourself,” the actor-producer told Hindustan Times as he discussed the comic register of his new show, The Ba***ds of Bollywood, a series that mines industry foibles and star culture for material. The approach is both a creative choice and a strategic gambit: by lampooning the very hallmarks that have made him a target—family pedigree, youthful privilege, tabloid scrutiny—Khan seeks to steer the conversation away from past controversies and toward a more self-aware public persona.

The show arrives at a fraught moment for Bollywood’s cultural currency. Streaming platforms are hungry for content that can attract attention quickly, and celebrity projects remain a reliable draw. But attention is double-edged: along with viewers come heightened scrutiny over nepotism, accountability and the distance between elite lives and ordinary audiences. Khan’s willingness to make himself the punchline fits into a growing pattern in which second‑generation stars use irony and satire to preempt criticism and display relatability without renouncing their status.

Performance-wise, Khan’s comic instincts on screen are deliberately modest. He trades swagger for self-effacement, using awkward pauses and exaggerated clichés to lampoon archetypes rather than people. That choice softens potentially provocative material, allowing sketches to critique the industry without becoming overtly accusatory. Critics and viewers have been divided: some applaud the candidness and see it as maturity, while others question whether self-deprecation can substitute for substantive engagement with systemic issues such as access and gatekeeping.

The strategy also has clear business logic. Producers and platforms view star-driven projects as low-risk promotional vehicles in a saturated market. A show that simultaneously entertains and generates headlines about a performer’s “honesty” can translate into higher visibility and viewer curiosity. At the same time, the tactic reduces reputational risk; when stars make light of controversies, negative coverage can be reframed as evidence of humility rather than evasion.

Culturally, Khan’s comedic posture speaks to a generational recalibration in Indian celebrity culture. Younger entertainers are increasingly comfortable exposing their contradictions in public forums, leveraging humor, podcasts and social video to present multi-dimensional images that contrast with older, more guarded modes of publicity. That shift reflects broader social media dynamics: audiences now expect access, authenticity and irony in roughly equal measure.

Yet there are limits. Satire that centers the privileged runs the risk of minimizing lived inequities. Observers warn that while jokes about one’s own lineage can be cathartic, they should not become shorthand for reform. For audiences still sensitive to the fallout of high-profile incidents—Aryan Khan’s 2021 detention remains a touchstone in public memory—the laugh track may not erase demands for accountability or structural changes in how opportunity is distributed.

Ultimately, Khan’s experiment asks a question central to contemporary celebrity: can humor recalibrate power? If nothing else, The Ba***ds of Bollywood highlights how entertainment, image management and social debate are now intertwined, with comedians, stars and platforms all competing to shape the tone of national conversation.