Janbo and Goodness Gracious Me remind us that Superman is actually Indian

The Bombay office of visual effects house Rhythm & Hues created the cape in Superman Returns, revived Marlon Brando as Jor-El and composited the centaurs in Narnia:

The cape was a problem… “It had a lot of wrinkles in most of the shots,” recalls Achint. “So we had to create computer generated (CG) capes in many shots. It helped enhance the overall Superman image to have a wrinkle-free cape flowing behind him.” [Link]

“… R&H India worked on several hundred shots right here in Mumbai… A lot of centaurs… were shot with riders riding the horses. Our compositors had to remove the riders & the horse heads from the live action footage so that computer generated human upper halves could be integrated.” [Link]

The Indian team also worked on Daredevil, Serenity, The Ring 2, The Cat in the Hat and The Chronicles of Riddick. Watch the studio make Brando mouth new words.

Like Chinese myth, Superman may have been inspired by Hanuman, and in the latest film Superman flies a mountain-like land mass on his shoulders:

Word is that the original creators Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel were inspired from none other than the Indian mythological hero Hanuman and that is how Superman got his flying powers. [Link]

Bollywood ripped off Superman at least thrice:

India’s tryst with Superman began in 1960 with a film titled umm…, ‘Superman’! The title role was played by the Dadasaheb Phalke award winning actor P. Jairaj. Nirupa Roy, known for her motherly roles, was the lead actress of the film… we assume that she enacted the role of Superman’s girlfriend Lois Lane. Dancer Helen was also part of the star cast…

[Manmohan Sabir] was the director of the original ‘Return of Superman’… “My movie was not a sequel to the other film that released the same year. It was a different film altogether. The title Superman was registered by my friend Ram Dayal (producer) and he objected to it… So I changed the title and released it…”

Years later, India saw Puneet Issar in the form of Superman again in 1987. [Link]

A TV version was called Shaktiman:

“When I was doing Shaktiman, critics told me it was a bad copy of Superman,” he adds. “I used to tell them that the Superman idea was, in fact, lifted from our own Hanuman so no one can accuse me of plagiarism.” [Link]

Check out a clip from the Indian Superman (’87).

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