Shaktimaan, a popular Indian superhero, has been licensed to Sony Pictures International. Originally, the character appeared in a TV series starring Mukesh Khanna.
Hollywood studio Sony Pictures has acquired the film adaptation rights for Shaktimaan, India’s homegrown superhero.
Sony Pictures India made the announcement on Thursday evening with a short concept video showing the rise of Shaktimaan. The video shows a flying camera and glasses, which were signature accessories of Shaktimaan’s alter ego journalist Gangadhar Shastri, followed by the superhero’s logo on his chest. The text in the video reads, “As darkness and evil prevail upon humanity, it’s time for him to return.” The video then goes on to give a better look at Shaktimaan’s costume.
The video was captioned, “After the super success of our many superhero films in India and all over the globe, it’s time for our desi Superhero!” In a follow-up tweet, the studio wrote, “We are excited to join hands with Brewing Thoughts Private Limited, and Mukesh Khanna’s Bheeshm International. Get ready for #ShaktimaanMovie; more details coming soon.”
Neither the release date nor the actor playing the character have been announced by the studio. Adarsh reports that the film will star one of India’s major stars and will be directed by a ‘top name’. Tanan reported on Instagram that the franchise will be a trilogy.
Shaktimaan was originally a Doordarshan TV series that began airing in 1997. The film featured Kitu Gidwani, Vaishnavi, Surendra Pal, and Tom Alter in the ensemble cast, along with Mukesh Khanna. There were 450 episodes in almost eight years of this show and it was a huge success. Shaktimaan is a superhuman with mystical and supernatural abilities, who is tasked by a mystical sect of saints with battling evil in the world.
Mukesh Khanna conceptualized the character in the early 1980s. Speaking to Screen Magazine in 1997, the actor had said, “In Indian mythology, there are a lot of strong characters but no super-heroes. All we get to see our Superman or Spiderman, who are alien concepts. That’s why I decided to create an Indian superhero, Shaktimaan, who is born out of a yagna, and a result of all the creative energies of the universe.”
The actor announced that a trilogy would be made on the character in 2020, promising that it would be “bigger than Ra.One and Krrish.”
