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Hollywood’s superhero franchises, especially the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) and DC Extended Universe (DCEU), have garnered a massive following in India. But even India’s own culture has a rich history of mythological heroes with superhuman abilities—characters from epics like the Mahabharata and Ramayana are larger-than-life figures who wield immense power and face moral dilemmas. Superheroes resonate with this tradition, embodying values like bravery, loyalty, and sacrifice, which are prominent in Indian mythological tales. (Also read: Bagheera movie review: Sriimurali shines in Prashanth Neel’s homegrown Batman flick)
These films present a world of fantasy where good triumphs over evil and the journey of superheroes from ordinary people to powerful protectors mirrors the aspirations of many. But alongside this, filmmakers also infuse these films with a lot of humour, emotion and action making them highly entertaining.
Take for instance, the recent hit Kannada superhero film, Bagheera directed by Dr Suri. Featuring Sriimurali as cop Vedanth Prabhakar and Bagheera, the story written by ace director Prashant Neel seems to have a lot of resonance with people this Diwali, which incidentally celebrates the victory of good over evil.
Bagheera is a homegrown Batman film that is mostly entertaining and a new genre for Kannada filmgoers to explore and the audience seems to be loving it. It has already grossed more than ₹14 crore since its release on October 31. However, aside from Bagheera, there are numerous south Indian superhero films that have received a lot of love from the audience and one must watch.
Hanu-Man
A very unassuming Telugu film called Hanu-Man came out in January 2024 and turned out to be a huge blockbuster. This Telugu superhero film directed by Prasanth Varma stars Teja Sajja as Hanumanthu, a petty thief from the fictional village of Anjanadri. He finds a divine gem formed from a drop of Lord Hanuman’s blood which gives superpowers and the story tells us of how he turns Hanu-Man and how he saves his village from evil men. The story of Hanu-Man, written by Prasanth Varma, successfully blends sci-fi, fantasy and mythology and proved that mythological figures can also turn superheroes and be loved by the common man. This flick, which earned a whopping ₹330 crore at the box office (all languages), is streaming on ZEE5 and Jio Cinema. (Also read: HanuMan review: Teja Sajja’s superhero film kicks off Prasanth Varma’s cinematic universe)
Minnal Murali
When this movie initially released on Netflix during the pandemic in 2021, there weren’t any high expectations but in a few days of its release, Malayalam film Minnal Murali became one of the biggest hits on the streaming platform. Starring Tovino Thomas as Jaison Varghese / Minnal Murali, the Basil Joseph-directed film became the Malayalam version of Batman. Struck by lightning, Jaison develops a superpower and one sees how he uses this to save his village and defeat the villain. Basil Joseph gave us a superhero so culturally rooted that it connected not just with the Malayalam audience but pan-India! The extremely well-scripted and tightly-edited film showed us that both hero and villain can both be given equal importance in a film and both be likeable. (Also read: Minnal Murali movie review: Kerala delivers India’s first great superhero film)
Maaveran
Tamil star Sivakarthikeyan is known for looking for versatility in his roles, and with director Madonne Ashwin’s Maaveeran, experiment he did. The 2023 Tamil film depicts the story of Sathya, a meek cartoonist, who meets with an accident and post which he starts to hear voices in his head which tell him what to do. Infused with copious amounts of comedy, Maaveeran was a delightful entertainer which saw Sathya believe in himself and face evil head on. This movie, which made nearly ₹100 crore, is streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Hero
Hero was a Tamil superhero film that came out in 2019 and uses the Hindi superhero character Shaktimaan as its inspiration for the hero Sakthi, played by Sivakarthikeyan. Sakthi dreams of becoming a superhero like Shaktimaan but a disaster takes place and his life takes a turn. In trying to help his friend Mathi, Sakthi turns into Mask and takes on a corrupt industrialist. Some critics called this film a ‘spiritual sequel’ to director Shankar’s Gentleman and while it can get preachy, Hero is a film that holds up a mirror to society and the education system. This flick can be watched on Amazon Prime Video.
