Superboys of Malegaon: India's homemade superhero star strikes Bollywood fame

Amateur filmmaker Shaikh Nasir (L) speaks with actor Shaikh Aleemuddin Abdul Rasheed aka Aleem Tahir (C) and director Shaikh Muqeemuddin Abdul Rasheed aka Muqeem Meena Nagri. Image: Indranil Mukherjee / AFP©

Half a day's drive from India's entertainment capital Mumbai, many in the struggling textile city of Malegaon escape the thrum of dawn-till-dusk industrial weaving looms by daydreaming about Bollywood stars.

Among them is amateur filmmaker Shaikh Nasir who, after decades of dedication to creating homemade movies, is celebrating having his own story turned into a film that will be shown internationally on the big screen.

"The cinema is, and always has been, our escape from everyday lives and our daily struggles," 50-year-old Nasir said.

Video parlours remain popular in the industrial city, where factory workers and daily wage labourers pack small dark rooms to watch Bollywood classics on large TV screens, with tickets far cheaper than a real cinema.

For them, Nasir is already a star.

As a young struggling wedding videographer and self-described "unemployed cinema buff" in the mid-2000s, Nasir took action.

"I decided to make a movie with cheap rented cameras, innovative production hacks and a crew of equally enthusiastic film fanatics," he told AFP.

He poured in his savings and raised cash from friends to fund a series of Bollywood and Hollywood spoofs.

Most famous was "Malegaon Ka Superman", or "Malegaon's Superman", in which a caped superhero fights cancer-causing tobacco to save the day.

Unlikely dream factory

To make the hero fly, creative special effects included dragging the actor on roller skates, or strapping him to a plank attached to an out-of-sight handcart, speeding down bumpy streets.

A more ambitious scene sees the actor carried on the heads of friends concealed under a dyed sheet—a makeshift green screen.

For camera rigs, bicycles provided tracking shots and cattle carts became improvised cranes.

The film— in Hindi and local dialects—made Nasir wildly popular at home.

That success spawned a slew of low-budget films in Malegaon that some Indian media dubbed "Mollywood".

"The response to our work was unbelievable," Nasir said.

In 2008, the award-winning documentary "Supermen of Malegaon" brought their uplifting story to international attention.

Now Nasir and his old crew are readying for the big-budget Bollywood treatment—not to remake the movie, but a film inspired by the director's determination.

The Hindi-language "Superboys of Malegaon", which will premiere next month at the Toronto International Film Festival, tells the tale of how Nasir's "no-budget, community-sourced movies turned his hometown into an unlikely dream factory".

Nasir worked with the production team, but in the movie version of his life, he is played by actor Adarsh Gourav, who featured in the Oscar-nominated film "The White Tiger".

Also read: Imtiaz Ali: The master brewer of timeless tales

This is passion

It was not all plain sailing.

In the face of rampant video piracy around 2014, profits from making a film tumbled.

Nasir made ends meet running a local hotel.

But production was reinvigorated as viewing habits shifted.

The rise of readily available mobile internet meant people began streaming content on their phones.

Some of Nasir's old crew now make a profit churning out online comedy shows.

One of them is Mukeem Arshad, 42. He runs two YouTube comedy channels that he says give him a steady income.

Now, around a dozen crews of amateur writers, directors and actors produce multiple features for dedicated online followers each month.

One of the most successful YouTube channels in the city has nearly 34 million followers.

The advent of the internet has also helped shift social attitudes.

When Nasir began filming, society frowned on women taking part in film production.

But Roma Momin, who has acted in hundreds of productions, says women are increasingly getting more opportunities.

"Things have become much easier, especially for women who didn't have the avenues to express or showcase their talent, because of the internet," she said.

"But I still dream of graduating to the bigger stage, hopefully Bollywood," she added.

Aleem Tahir, 52, an actor in one of Nasir's earlier movies, is one of the rare few from Malegaon who has had that Bollywood break as a writing assistant.

"This is passion, this is love," Tahir said, pausing after a take for a local production.

"And this is just the start for us."