Indian superheroes

Recently I stumbled upon a Youtube channel called RC Motion Pictures. It had impressive concept trailers of films based on Raj Comics superheroes. For those who don't know Raj Comics, it was India's answer to DC and Marvel. I practically grew up reading Raj Comics and they fueled my imagination, so much so that I myself wrote a story about Super Commando Dhruv when I was 11. 

Anyway, I found out that RC Motion Pictures could not secure financing to make short-films/web-series and that's sad. Raj Comics' universe deserves the big screen. Their characters, origin stories, the drama, action and dialogues; it is all tailor-made for Bollywood. Take for example, Super Commando Dhruv, the Indian version of Captain America. He grew up in a circus where his parents were murdered. The police commissioner adopted him and turned him into a super crime-fighter that everyone looks up to. There is romantic tension between him and Natasha, daughter of his arch-nemesis Robo. Or my favorite, Doga, an anti-hero like Batman, who was an orphan and was treated like a dog by a dacoit before he was rescued by four brothers (curiously named after spices, Adrak, Dhania, Haldi and Kali Mirch Chacha). He is a bodybuilder by the day and a ruthless crime fighter by the night, also hunted by the police. There are many others, all mostly borrowed (one may say copied) but Indianized versions of western superheroes-- Nagraj (Spiderman; throws magical snakes instead of webs), Inspector Steel (Robocop), Parmanu (Atom) etc. And then there are the crossover stories with multiple superheroes.

So what is Bollywood doing? So far, its attempts in superhero genre have been disappointing (Ra One, Krrish, A Flying Jatt. Notable exception, Bhavesh Joshi). Our filmmakers spend tons of money to get Hollywood-level special effects but fail to get a decent script with a hero that Indians can relate to. If they were to make movies based on already existing, popular comic book stories, we would have our own cinematic universe like MCU. I hope our filmmakers take notice of the exciting possibilities here and I hope I get to see a Raj Comics movie in this lifetime.

I leave you with an example of dialogue-baazi from Welcome Doga Welcome Steel. Inspector Steel wants to arrest villain Electra alive but Doga's principles differ. "I told you Steel. This is Mumbai, my Mumbai. Criminals like these don't have my permission to breathe. You see, I don't solve the problems, I uproot them." Killer lines!

Raj Comics has a nice Android app where you can buy and read comics.