Duryodhan Bana Superman: Puneet Issar's Superhero Flick Is A B-Movie Fan's Dream

In #BizarreSpotlight, author Amborish Roychoudhury shines a light on overlooked Bollywood gems from his 'cabinet of curiosities'. Today: Puneet Issar in and as Superman (1987).

IT was an ill-conceived, unfortunate punch that threatened to halt the march of the Angry Young Man, and got the whole nation praying for him. The fist that wielded the punch belonged to an unassuming young man named Puneet Issar. Son of director Sudesh Issar, Puneet was making his debut with Coolie. Entirely by accident, the brawny youngster ended up hitting Amitabh Bachchan a little too hard during a fight scene. Bachchan was severely injured and it could have been fatal. Inevitably, many fans blamed Puneet, and he kept receiving hate mail for a while. It impacted his career for a while and despite the success of Ramsay Brothers’ Purana Mandir, the young Issar didn’t exactly have producers raring to sign him on. 

It was the serendipitous casting as Duryodhan in BR Chopra’s magnum opus Mahabharat that really changed the course of his career. But there was one other film that cropped up somewhere in between. A film that earned him a place in the history of superhero films. He is part of a lineage that includes names such as George Reeves, Christopher Reeve, Brandon Routh, Tom Welling, Henry Cavill and more recently, Tyler Hoechlin. You see, Puneet Issar is the only Indian actor to don the red and blue costume associated with the Man of Tomorrow. 

In real terms, the first Indian actor who played Superman was Nirupa Roy, otherwise known for playing Bachchan's mother in the 1970s. She played the title role in Superman (1960), thus becoming the only woman in history to play that role. Her co-star in the film was strong-man Jairaj, who later built a name for himself playing cops and tough old men. In the same year, Jairaj also played Superman in the interestingly titled Return of Mr. Superman, in which he sported what looked like a gas mask and cape as his superhero costume. 18 years later, Richard Donner’s Superman (1978) takes the world by storm and by the time Superman III is out, Bollywood is ready with another version of the Man of Steel. Made by a man called Balendra Gupta, usually credited as B Gupta.

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B Gupta is one of those names in the footnotes of Bollywood who, despite having a substantial body of work, were lost to obscurity. Just a while after his debut Aas ka Panchhi (1961) in which he was credited for special effects, Gupta managed the visual effects on the Kishore Kumar comic caper Half Ticket (1962). In those days when CGI was not even a distant dream, visual effects were achieved by inventive tricks of the camera. Gupta was impressively prolific in the field, being responsible for visual effects in films like Shikari (1963), Lootera (1965), Jaani Dushman (1979), Bees Saal Baad (1988) and Khiladi (1992). Like most special effects aficionados, Gupta had an appetite for the bizarre and the fantastical. In the 60s, he got the chance to direct a film and made Jadoo, which was based on the Arabian Nights. His second directorial was Dr. X (1972) which was a spin on The Invisible Man, originally written by HG Wells and adapted for the screen on several dozen occasions. 

Gupta happened to see Richard Donner’s Superman (1978) and was utterly gobsmacked. The decision to make a Superman movie of his own was almost immediate. But one would assume that he saw Donner’s film in the early 80s, because Gupta's film was eventually released in 1987. Be that as it may, Superman (1987) was a delectable mix of action, sci-fi, adventure and even a bit of comedy. Puneet Issar played the desi Clark Kent called Shekhar, who was sent to Earth as an infant by his parents, Dharmendra and Ranjeeta, because they believed “mom ki tarah pighalkar ye planet saari qayanaat par phail jaayega (the planet will melt like wax and spread all over the universe).” To protect their son from impending doom, they pack him in a spaceship wrapped in cellophane paper and send it earthwards. Accompanied by stray shots from 2001: A Space Odyssey, a voiceover booms, “Jab tum prithvi par kadam rakhoge, woh insaani itihaas ka ek naya din hoga, aur tum apni superpower ke karan Superman ban kar zinda rahoge (The day you’ll walk on earth for the first time will forever be remembered in human history, and because of your superpowers, you will be known as Superman).” 

The baby lands and adopts an old couple, Ashok Kumar and Urmila Bhatt, as parents. They marvel at his super-feats like bending a garden hose and lifting a truck. Shekhar grows up and for the first time, we see him wearing the costume we know so well. There’s trouble on an aeroplane Shekhar is travelling on and of course, like all Supermen before him, he had to get into his tights and save the day. For some time, we see darkened shots of Richard Donner’s Superman (1978). It’s not easy — you have to really squint to realise that Issar has magically transformed into Christopher Reeve. But lest you forget who it really is, the very next frame has Issar — all suited up — touching his shoulder to the taxiing plane. It is a sight for sore eyes.

There’s a scene in Donner’s film where Superman encounters a projection of his father in what would become his Fortress of Solitude. In B. Gupta’s version, Shekhar comes across a similar apparition of Dharmendra where he delivers a long monologue about Shekhar’s duties towards “Dharti” which was now his home. “Tum dimaagi aur jismani taur par dharti pe rehnewale logon se kahin zyada taaqatwar ho (Physically as well as mentally, you are far stronger than earthlings),” holographic Dharmendra assures, “Tumhari zindagi ka maqsad dharti par achhai ki hifazat karna, aur burai ko khatm karna hai (Your goal is to protect goodness on earth and destroy evil).” He goes on to add, “jo superpowers humne tumhe di thhi, uske istemaal ka waqt aa gaya hai (It’s time you used the superpowers we gave you while setting off for earth).” It is quite probable that when B. Gupta’s Superman was released back in 1987, a 21-year-old Zack Snyder might have caught it in a rundown theatre in Pasadena, where he was studying Art. How else could one explain the Russell Crowe monologue in Man of Steel which is a near-perfect reproduction of Dharam’s rant?

Amborish Roychoudhury is the National Award-winning author of 'In a Cult of Their Own: Bollywood Beyond Box Office'. His latest book 'Sridevi: The South Years' was released on August 5, 2023.