Malegaon’s super men are going places

Documentary Supermen of Malegaon has garnered acclaim for Nasir, Akram and Farogh, enabling them to work on bigger projects

Where there’s a will, there’s a way’ is a saying Shaikh Nasir, Akram Khan and Farogh Jafri from Malegaon have proved right. Not once, or twice, but over and over again. Their struggle and passion for movie-making has been most potently captured in Faiza Ahmad Khan’s documentary titled Supermen of Malegaon.

Shafique-Sheikh-Malegaon-s-28-year-old-Superman-died-of-mouth-cancer

Not only has this movie got the crew of the film recognised at various film festivals across the world, but it is now enabling them to work on bigger projects in Mumbai.

Nasir who directed Malegaon Ka Superman with a measly budget of R50,000 also made Malegaon Ka Chintu for SAB TV that ran for 34 episodes and is now being rerun in the morning slots.

He says, “Producer Sunil Bohra liked our work and bought our film. He introduced me to Deepti Bhatnagar and Anuj Kapoor, who in turn got us the TV offer.”

Currently he is making another demo for a mute talent comedy for Sab TV and is putting together the script for Malegaon Ka Spiderman.

“We are looking for an investment of over R15 lakh this time, as we want to make it bigger. Our Spiderman will be a fat guy. He will keep falling because of his weight,” he says.

His colleague Akram who edited and gave music for Superman has directed a Marathi film and is looking for a distributor, while Farokh, who scripted the film, runs a restaurant in Malegaon. The film’s hero Shafique Shaikh died of cancer last November.