Superboys of Malegaon, by director and producer Reema Kagti, follows the true and inspiring story of Nasir Shaikh, a photographer and wedding videographer and his friends and their no-budget spoofs of Bollywood and Hollywood classics such as Sholay and Superman. Nasir and his bunch of friends built a parallel film industry in the heart of Malegaon (some 300 kilometres from India's entertainment capital, Mumbai) with simple homespun filmmaking techniques, amateur actors and the unique flavour of local dialect and comedy. While filming the Superman spoof, the hero dresses in comical red shorts with drawstrings dangling out, flying with the help of a makeshift device while Nasir films tracking shots by balancing on the back of a truck speeding down a bumpy road. Nasir’s works not only became instant local hits but the team also gained international recognition with the release of a 2008 documentary of their work called Supermen of Malegaon. It is Salim (Khan) – Javed (Akhtar) written Sholay inspired Nasir’s passion for filmmaking and interestingly, Akhtar’s daughter and prominent director Zoya happened to watch this documentary at a film festival.
“I loved the documentary but their documentary is about the making of the Supermen of Malegaon. And, two or three years later, Nasir and I met at the Osian film festival in Delhi. We were all in the foyer and I saw Nasir across the hall. Our eyes met and we recognized each other. We both walked towards each other and he told me, ‘I know who you are, I have copied all your father’s films’ (laughs heartily). We stayed in touch; he would come to Mumbai and we used to meet. Then we realised there is more to the story, his personal life was quite intriguing and that is how it all started. I felt Supermen of Malegaon was a hugely moving story that could have been made into a film. So, Superboys of Malegaon is actually 10 years of his life, before Nasir made Supermen. It's a very big story from a very small town in India. It tells you how connected you are, especially with cinema,” says Zoya. Adds Kagti, “Our film covers the making of the director Nasir ..it goes a little more in depth into his start, his journey. We knew the documentary that is out there is very good so how do we up our game a little more. Luckily we had all the tools of fiction to do that.” This is how Nasir’s story is brought to life in Superboys of Malegaon by filmmakers Zoya Akhtar, Reema Kagti, and Farhan Akhtar.
Kagti found many parallels between Nasir and her. "Nasir's influences and my influences are very similar. The love for filmmaking, the need for friends to work with and connection to small towns because that is where I grew up besides Nasir’s influences in cinema being my own whether it is Bruce Lee or Mr Amitabh Bachchan …these are the films I grew up loving. So, our connection is on many levels,” says Kagti.
Superboys of Malegaon is an ode to the determination of Nasir, played by Adarsh Gourav, who featured in the Oscar-nominated film adaptation of Aravind Adiga's 2008 Booker Prize-winning novel, The White Tiger. “It is a big honour for me that I am playing Nasir’s character. Before the shoot Nasir and I spent a lot of time together in Malegaon, he shared a lot of stories about his life. I also met his family and friends. The film is his journey in the last 20 to 25 years from where he started, he has created a legacy which people are following and getting inspired. I am happy to have gotten this opportunity and be part of such an amazing film. Every person who is part of this film has been immortalised and has been made into a hero of sorts, and it's given them a reason to not just exist but to celebrate life," says Gourav who is all set to make his theatrical comeback after eight years with Superboys of Malegaon.
Between 2017 and now Gourav has done The White Tiger, Extrapolations, Kho Gaye Hum Kahan and web series like Guns & Gulaabs, Leila. However, all of them were released on OTT or digital platforms. “I absolutely love the reach of digital platforms but there’s something magical about watching a story unfold on the big screen, hearing the audience react together, and feeling that collective energy that makes it so special. I am very nervous now not because I want Superboys to become some massive box office success but because it is after eight years that I am having a theatrical release. The last film in which I was playing a central character that was released in theatres was Rukh in 2017,” says Gourav. However, Nasir is found too overwhelmed to express his thoughts. “I am very happy; my dreams have been fulfilled. It is so exciting to see the film made from my life. The movies that we made are based on Bollywood movies and today Bollywood making film on us is like a dream,” he says teary-eyed.
With Nasir documenting every event in his life since his childhood it became easy for the film’s writer Varun Grover who collaborated with Nasir big time in Malegaon. “It is great to have your reference right next to you, you can quickly check, you need not Google or research. Then I had access to all the real-life characters, their family members, they made documentation of not just films they made but they also documented the picnics and celebrations they had after the film worked. Videos made with a handycam, what they are cooking, what they are singing, what they are wearing…I got all the footage, so he is one of the best archivists I know. In his childhood he did some play when he was 15-16 and he has kept multiple copies of the newspaper clippings of that event. Even his father, who was a photographer in 1965, has a photo of playing chess with himself. There are origins of filmmaking talent in the family, it is that level of documentation. It benefited not just the writer but also the production and costume designer. For all it was all available and that is the real privilege we used to the maximum," says Grover.
"Secondly", he continues, "I had the privilege of staying and spending time with all the characters in Malegaon. It rarely happens when such films or films in the biopic space are made that there are characters available and you can meet them. At times you can’t meet and talk to the legends. Then, of course, I got the creative freedom working with Zoya and Reema who are also writers and the collaborative energy just flowed,” says Grover. When asked about cinematic liberties taken while making the real-life story, Kagti said it was balancing authenticity with cinematic storytelling. “We have tried to capture the essence of a person; our actors didn’t try to mimic anybody. Obviously, we did work on things like hair, make-up, wardrobe, production design to show the era we are capturing,” says the director.
Superboys touches upon everything from poverty to love, to dream to aspirations ..never straying far from Nasir's unwavering belief in the power of a camera. Following its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and acclaimed screenings at the 68th BFI London Film Festival, Red Sea International Film Festival, and more, the film has continued to garner global recognition, including a Young Cineastes Special Mention at the 2025 Palm Springs International Film Festival. What is the expectation from audiences back home and co-producer Ritesh Sidhwani says, “The story is about friendship, perseverance, aspiration...all these are universal emotions. With limited resources, what Nasir achieved is remarkable. When you go to a cinema hall and when you are watching something which is like a community viewing it has to evoke an emotion which is universal and this film does that. It Ted talks about a group of people who whipped out something that was unimaginable and they achieved it. The best place to bring that kind of a universal emotion is to cinemas and then we had amazing resources. It will spark some conversation when people go to watch it. Movie will resonate among the audience and hence we are giving it a wide release. Hope we talk about its success soon.”
Adds Zoya, “Superboys is a story about people that felt outside of a system and wanted to do something so they created their own system and today the mainstream is making a film on them. That was very inspiring for people that like movies and their references like Chaplin or Bruce Lee ..these are universal. People really connected with him and Nasir got a huge standing ovation at TIFF.” “It is a lesson for everyone, particularly in a world of smartphones, where everyone can be a film-maker. People who watch this film will realise that they don't need to wait for a big break... They can just take that step," she adds. In Superboys, the writer of the spoofs, Farogh, tells Nasir: "You told our stories, in our own voices... You gave us dreamers a place in the universe …In the history of Indian cinema, you've added a page for Malegaon." “People ask why theatrical release? Why not? It goes beyond filmmaking. This is a slice of life film, it is about loving, having friends, importance of dreams in your life …inherently the subject is very universal which will have collective and unique experience in a cinema hall,” sums up Kagti.
An Amazon MGM Studios, Excel Entertainment, and Tiger Baby production, Superboys of Malegaon is produced by Ritesh Sidhwani, Farhan Akhtar, Zoya Akhtar, and Reema Kagti. Written by Varun Grover, the film boasts a versatile ensemble cast, including Adarsh Gourav, Vineet Kumar Singh, and Shashank Arora in lead roles. The film is set to release in theatres on February 28 across India, the US, UK, UAE, Australia, and New Zealand.
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