A recent Netflix study reported that the viewing for K-dramas on Netflix in India increased more than 370% in 2020 over 2019.  The rising popularity of South Korean shows has led Indian streaming platforms such as MX Player and ZEE5 to release their Hindi-dubbed versions. In concert with these trends, Spotify’s 2020 data revealed that BTS was the fourth-most streamed boy band in India.  How do we make sense of the astounding spread of Hallyu in India? Do concepts such as “cultural imperialism,” “cultural proximity,” or “contra-flow” explain the consumption of Hallyu in India? Scholarly discussions of Hallyu’s success generally and in South Asia specifically have focused on fans, insightfully demonstrating how an engagement with Hallyu enables the formation of resistant subjectivities and pressures Hollywood’s hegemony.  I turn to map another trajectory of Hallyu focusing on its prominent role in the political and economic imaginaries of the South Korean state.  Korean cultural centers attached to South Korean diplomatic missions, have mobilized Hallyu as an emotional glue to enable the South Korean state’s neoliberal initiatives.  I focus on the Delhi based Korean cultural center, tracing how its sponsorship of the “All-India K-pop contest” and “K-Insider Documentary Challenge” make possible political and economic ties among the South Korean state, the Indian state, and South Korean conglomerates. In streaming a mass cultural form, states become content creators, extending the logic of the market through cultivating neoliberal fan subjectivities.  The Korean cultural center bridges self-growth and the market, promoting self-improvement and self-actualization through consumption.  

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