Cowboys, treasure hunters, supermen in video parlours: How a Toronto premiere has turned lens back on Malegaon film industry (2024)

Standing on the terrace of his new house on Kusumba Road, located a stone’s throw from the Malegaon bus stand, Nasir tells The Indian Express, “The standing ovation (at the Toronto festival) was an affirmation of the hard work that I, along with countless other artists from Malegaon, have dedicated to this art form…It was a humbling experience.”

Film-maker Nasir Shaikh, the inspiration behind Superboys of Malegaon that premiered at the Toronto film festival in September, at his Malegaon house. (Express photo by Deepak Joshi)

Directed by Reema Kagti and set to be released early next year, Superboys of Malegaon chronicles the inspiring life of the homebrewed auteur who, along with his friends, struggles to create low-budget, community-sourced films.

While Nasir has emerged as the face of the film industry in Malegaon, located 280 km north of Mumbai, he stands on the shoulders of giants like the late Ghulam Mohammed Zaidi, the film-maker credited with making the town’s first film, Qatil Khazana, in 1972.

As Qatil Khazana’s treasure hunters, cowboys, marauding tribes and harem dancers flickered to life in countless makeshift video parlours dotting the town, Zaidi’s adventure film, made on 16 mm, paved the way for future film-makers in Malegaon.

While attempting to make a film in a conservative Malegaon, Zaidi encountered significant challenges, including scepticism and questions regarding his intentions from his own father. Despite these obstacles, his singular film, completed before his untimely death in the early 1980s, laid the foundation for future filmmakers of Malegaon.

A city with a population of 4.8 lakh, of which 79% are Muslims, Malegaon is a bustling hub of textile activity due its large number of powerlooms. Its Muslim quarters have often been described as the epitome of underdevelopment. Thousands of its workers still spend 12-14 hours amidst the cacophony of clattering powerlooms in poorly ventilated environs.

Exhausted from their labour, these men would seek outlets for relaxation and entertainment. In a city where the clergy significantly influences cultural values and residents are closely connected to Islamic traditions that prohibit drinking, many turned to cinema. This cultural shift spurred the proliferation of theatres and video parlours throughout Malegaon, providing a much-needed respite and entertainment for the community.

Of rickety chairs and video cassettes

One such video parlour was a 200-seater establishment in the bustling neighbourhood of Qidwai Nagar. In this parlour, owned by Nyaju Seth, as Nasir’s father was popularly known, labourers would pay Rs 3 a head to sit on rickety chairs and watch video cassettes of latest hits projected on a white screen.

An avid photographer and film aficionado, Nyaju was pivotal in nurturing his youngest son Nasir’s love for films. This love for cinema only deepened after Nasir took over the video parlour’s operations after Class 10. “I would travel to Mumbai to bring back the latest Hollywood films. Rambo 3 was the first movie I screened after taking charge. It was a massive hit,” he recalls.

Eventually, he started handling video cameras and even running a successful wedding video business. All of 24 in 1998, a chance encounter with Siraj Dular, a prominent figure in Malegaon’s art-theatre scene and his neighbour, set off a series of events that plunged Nasir into the world of film-making.

Siraj Dular stands in front of an epitaph in Malegaon’s Christian Cemetery that features in the opening shot of the first film made in town. (Express Photo by Deepak Josh)

Working on his film Dahshatgard that year, Dular, now 76 and the president of the Malegaon Drama, Art & Culture Association, was in need of a cameraperson. The film is the story of a Kashmiri militant who comes to Malegaon and undergoes a profound transformation after staying with a Hindu family.

Dular, who became the first Malegaon resident to appear on celluloid by played the lead as treasure hunter John in 1972’s Qatil Khazana, recalls, “Besides handling the camera, Nasir also made changes to the script, and directed and edited the film remarkably well given the equipment available and the lack of film education.”

A “fun” film is made

Since most films made in Malegaon then focussed primarily on social issues and lacked a captive audience, Nasir decided to change this approach to film-making. Inspired by the humour and joy he found in the works of cine stars like Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, and Jackie Chan, he decided to make a “fun” film.

“In our world, cheap imitations often sell better than original products. I was already fascinated by Bollywood duplicates. So I thought, why not recreate Sholay in the context of Malegaon.” he says.

Siraj played the lead in Malegon’s first film, Qatil Khazana (1972), becoming the town’s first resident to appear on celluloid. (Express Photo Deepak Joshi)

And that’s how Nasir ended up making Malegaon Ke Sholay. Starring budding local artists Akram Khan and Farogh Jafri, the spoof was made on a shoestring budget of Rs 50,000. The humorous reimagining of the classic saw bicycles replace Sholay’s ubiquitous horses, and local dialects, cultural references and social issues relevant to Malegaon pepper the cult film’s iconic dialogue.

“Unlike other places, where moviegoers often check the lead actor before watching a film, locals in Malegaon, particularly the working class, ask just one question: ‘Aidva ke hai (who is the comedian)?’. Comedy plays a crucial role in alleviating the struggles they face,” says Dular.

Malegaon Ke Sholay, which reaped four times its production cost, led to Nasir producing more films, including Malegaon Ki Shaan and Malegaon Ka Don. Others too started creating spoofs of popular films like Lagaan and Karan Arjun.

The economics of these films was straightforward: a portion of the revenue would come from screenings in Malegaon’s video parlours and the rest from the rights sold to Mumbai-based distributors who would market DVDs across India. While some film-makers made money, the economic condition of most budding artists remained largely unchanged.

Then, on September 8, 2006, three explosions in town branded it as a hotbed of “radical” activities, besides calling it a symbol of Muslim anger and alienation. The blasts were followed by the detention and arrest of several young men. As the media descended on Malegaon in search of stories, its homemade film industry gained traction — as an interesting side story.

A few international documentaries, including Supermen of Malegaon (2008), which followed Nasir’s journey as he produced Malegaon Ka Superman, catapulted the local film industry into national prominence. Nasir spent the next three years directing a comedy series, Malegaon ka Chintu, for a television channel, travelling to over a dozen Western countries and connecting with Bollywood elite, including director-screenwriter Zoya Akhtar.

“I met Zoya at the screening of Supermen of Malegaon in 2012. She told me she wanted to make a film on my life. Though we kept in touch, the project only took off in 2020,” Nasir recalls.

Having grown disenchanted with the glitter of Bollywood, Nasir decided to quit film-making in 2015 and opened a restaurant near the bustling Malegaon bus stand.

“The entertainment industry is a different world. You have to change your character to fit in. Once you enter that realm, you can no longer be a part of the normal film world. I couldn’t live with the demands it made on me as a person, so I decided to quit,” Nasir had told The Indian Express in 2016.

Zoya’s film has since cast Nasir back into the spotlight. And while he is eager to promote the project, he remains one of the few original filmmakers from Malegaon basking in the limelight. Many others, including the late Farogh Jaffrey, have found themselves relegated to obscurity. Jaffrey passed away, bitter and unrecognised, on September 13, 2020, exactly four years before Superboys of Malegaon premiered in Toronto.

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While most pioneers of Malegaon’s film industry ceased production after 2016, early trendsetters, including actors Akram Khan and Rafeeq Johnny, set up their own YouTube channels, where their 10-minute humorous clips have gained a considerable following.

Though these clips boast a superior technical quality compared to the films made by Nasir and his peers, they lack the earthy humour unique to the earlier Malegaon films.

Though Nasir claims he doesn’t watch the new content emerging out of Malegaon, he admits to contemplating returning to film-making since Superboys of Malegaon. “Maybe it’s time to reconsider my decision to not make films,” he says.