In Superboys of Malegaon, the true story of DIY filmmakers who create a hit

It's difficult to differentiate the fan from the star when speaking to the people behind Superboys of Malegaon, an upcoming Hindi feature film, based on a true story, about a group of cinema lovers from Malegaon, a small town roughly six hours drive north of Mumbai. Obsessed with cinema, they decide to make movies inspired by their village life, featuring local talent in leading roles.

The film is directed by Reema Kagti, a celebrated Indian filmmaker responsible for films such as Talaash and Gold as a director, as well as Gully Boy and the Prime Video series Made In Heaven as writer-producer. It's written by Varun Grover, a well-known writer and lyricist, who last visited TIFF a decade ago, as part of the crew behind the two-part crime saga Gangs Of Wasseypur. The cast and crew were in Toronto for the film's world premiere at TIFF 2024. CBC Arts caught up with four of them to chat, a day before the gala screening.

Set between the late 90s and into early aughts, Superboys of Malegaon offers a charming flashback to a time when big hair and baggy shirts and pants were in fashion. The biopic of small town folk, manages to tread the fine line between caricature and tribute.

In a sense, the real star of Superboys of Malegaon is also its main subject: the DIY filmmaker Nasir Sheikh. The film tells the story of how his love for Buster Keaton and Jackie Chan films, alongside the hugely popular Bollywood masala films, turned him into an amateur filmmaker. Starting by splicing Keaton's comic genius with Chan's martial arts manoeuvres, Sheikh went on to make spoofs of iconic Bollywood films such as Sholay (1975), helped along by his brothers-in-cinema.

Their endeavours eventually captured the attention of other filmmakers, including Faiza Ahmad Khan, who made a documentary in 2008 on the ragtag film fans turned filmmakers. When that documentary played at the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival, it was the talk of the town, says Grover. Kagti and her writing/producing collaborator Zoya Akhtar also saw the documentary, and sensed there was a deeper story to tell. But it wasn't until Akhtar met Sheikh in 2012 that Kagti and Akhtar got Sheikh's life rights.

As it happens, Akhtar is the daughter of Javed Akhtar, a legendary poet and screenwriter behind films such as Sholay. Sheikh was obviously a fan of Akhtar's father's work. But he had also seen Akhtar's own directorial debut Luck By Chance (2009).

"First of all, I watched Luck By Chance, and I guess my luck started then," says Sheikh, grinning, sitting in between Kagti and Grover. Sheikh has a natural flair for the dramatic, and doesn't miss a beat when it comes to offering succinct soundbytes, speaking in Hindi. "It was a completely different sort of film, whether you look at its making, the photography or story. I became a fan. I met her at a festival and she yelled out my name, "Nasir!" I was so happy. She called me to Bombay, saying she'll make a film on my life. My head started spinning right then."

Just as Sheikh and his friends looked up to Mumbai-based filmmakers, Grover had been a long time admirer of Sheikh's cinematic audacity. He had approached Sheikh and Farogh, Sheikh's poet friend who became the scriptwriter for Sheikh's spoofs, after the Supermen of Malegoan doc screening at MAMI Mumbai Festival.

"Nasir doesn't remember because there were many people waiting to meet him," says Grover.

Even after the hubbub of the documentary died down, Grover kept in touch with Farogh, who eventually moved to Mumbai to try his hand as a screenwriter in Bollywood. So when Kagti called Grover in 2019 to write a screenplay based on the larger-than-life story of Sheikh, Farogh and Shafique (played by Shashank Arora), Grover was excited.

"I found their world fascinating," he says. "I love films about filmmaking. And it's set in a place that no one would expect it would happen. In Malegaon."

The research for the film revealed several aspects of Sheikh and his friend's lives that went beyond the facts covered in the documentary, which primarily focused on the how and why of the making of Malegaon Ka Superman, he adds.

"Who are these people? What were they before making films? And who are they after making the films, when they go home in the evening that world wasn't documented anywhere," says Grover. Grover also wanted to dwell on two other themes. "What is cinema, if it's not elitist; when you take it out of the metropolis. And the constant tussle between the director and writer; who truly owns the film."

Although Sheikh (played by Adarsh Gourav) is the frontman behind the camera, Shafique is its soul. A constant sidekick, Shafique continues to support Sheikh even during times of personal crisis.

"It gives me a reason to get up in the morning," Shafique says in the film.

The only way to play such a character is with empathy, says Arora, who previously came to TIFF with the Malayalam language film Moothon in 2019.

"I was trying to understand who he was as a person, why he loves acting, and why he loved his friend," he says of Shafique, who died of mouth cancer in 2011.

Making Superboys of Malegaon was a reminder of their own passion for filmmaking, says Kagti.

"For me, the biggest takeaway was Nasir just did what he wanted to do. There was no agenda. He wanted to make films for the love of films. And I have to say when you consistently keep working in an industry like [Mumbai], you do tend to get a little jaded. So I think through Nasir, I connected to why I became a filmmaker in the first place."