‘Hunterwali’.
Not only children, even adults also like superhero movies and series, this is the reason why TV shows ‘Shaktimaan’ and ‘Junior Ji’ were so successful on the small screen. Many superhero films continued to be made in Bollywood too, be it ‘Krrish’ or ‘Mr. India’ and ‘Ajooba’. Amazing super powers were seen in all these films, which especially excited the children and youth. It is said that there was a time when children started aspiring to become superheroes like ‘Shaktimaan’, ‘Junior Ji’ and ‘Krrish’ and not Marvel. Now once again ‘Shaktimaan’ is going to make a comeback, Mukesh Khanna has also announced this, but apart from this, do you know about India’s first superhero? If you think the answer is ‘powerful’ then you are absolutely wrong.
So this was India’s first superhero show
‘Shaktimaan’ is definitely India’s most popular superhero, which showed a different era of superheroes to the children of the 90’s which was completely different from Marvel films, but this show was not India’s first superhero show. Even before this, the world of superheroes had started in India. Let us introduce you to the first Indian superhero who was not a man but a woman and gave India its first superhero in the year 1935. Looking at this, it can be said that Indian cinema at that time was more progressive than it is today and India got its first superhero many decades before ‘Shaktimaan’ came on the small screen.
The superhero era had already arrived in Bollywood.
People think that the era of superheroes in India came after the creation of ‘Batman’ and ‘Superman’ in Hollywood or that Indian cinema was not aware of this concept before the establishment of Marvel Comics, but this is completely wrong to think because Indian cinema Superhero films had already been produced years ago. The year was 1935 and Homi Wadia of Bombay’s Wadia Movietone was coming up with a swashbuckler that was considered Hollywood’s answer to The Mask of Zorro. The film was ‘Hunterwali’, an action film about a princess. The main character of this film works as a masked man to fight crime. The heroine of this film was Nadia, who was more of a hero than a charming beauty. His fearless image was projected on the film’s poster.
Nadia in the role of ‘Hunterwali’.
used to do powerful stunts
Nadia was originally Australian and trained as a stuntwoman in India. She was brought up in India. Nadia performed all her own stunts in the film, including horse riding, use of a whip, and even some heavy-hitting fight scenes. The film was released to much fanfare and was a massive hit, making Nadiya one of the earliest and most popular stunt actresses of Indian cinema. The success of ‘Hunterwali’ made Nadia a topic of discussion in Bollywood. He was cast in several other stunt films in the 1930s, many of which featured him playing masked characters.
Worked in these films
Nadia’s successful films include ‘Miss Frontier Mail’ (1936), ‘Diamond Queen’ (1940) and ‘Jungle Princess’ (1942). In 1943, she reprized her role as Princess Madhuri in Indian cinema’s first sequel, Hunterwali Ki Beti. This also proved to be a huge hit. Nadia continued to act in stunt films for a few more years, after which she played character roles in a handful of films. His last screen appearance was in ‘Khiladi’, released in 1968. Indian cinema did not see many superhero films until the 1980s, when Amitabh Bachchan revived the genre on the big screen with ‘Toofan’ and ‘Ajooba’, but were not very successful.
