ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the cinematic processes of building new physical and mental spaces of belonging for diasporic South Asian Muslims residing in the USA. The aim of the chapter is to study how these differences in cinematic delineation of the post-9/11 diasporic anxieties probe a reimagining of the nation-state and perceptions about transnational migration. The post-9/11 Hindi films are reflective of such diasporic anxieties and the state's tactics of Othering and legitimising racialisation. Ironi-cally, such paranoiac and racially charged incidents, suffused with national security anxieties, have uncanny resemblances with the plot of MNIK, in which Rizvan Khan, like Shah Rukh Khan, is pulled aside for extra screening at an airport due to his Muslim name. However, by delineating the protagonists' post-9/11 diasporic anxieties of representation, assimilation and expulsion, the films are successful in questioning the processes of racialisation and Othering of the Muslim citizens.
