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Movie stars in India are often seen as superheroes, which is probably why our audience has never experienced many desi superheroes on screen. Because why do you need a superhero if your hero can do it all anyway? In the 1970s, when Amitabh Bachchan was known as the ‘angry young man’, he was the man who could do it all. He could punch and kick on screen, he could fight for justice, he could even be the anti-hero, and the audience cheered for him anyway. By all means, he was the superhero of the masses. So when the superhero got injured in a near-fatal accident on the set of Coolie in 1982, it was a shock to the nation. Superheroes are seen as immortal beings, and Bachchan’s brush with death was unimaginable. It was at this time that Bachchan was immortalised as a comic book superhero called Supremo. On Amitabh’s birthday today, let’s turn the pages of his superhero avatar.
Not many would know that in the early 1980s, Pammi Bakshi, who was the editor of a film magazine called Movie, launched a comic book where the lead character was Amitabh Bachchan’s alter ego Supremo. The idea triggered after Pammi saw a bunch of kids playing on the street and they were all fighting to be Batman or Superman in a role playing game, but the moment someone said that they would play Amitabh Bachchan, the fight escalated, as now everyone wanted to be Bachchan. Kids equated Amitabh Bachchan to a superhero, and had more love for him than any of the other comic book superheroes. Pammi saw an opportunity here and took this idea to Amitabh Bachchan. The actor instantly agreed, but he had one condition – the character shouldn’t look like a caricature.
Gulzar was brought in as a script consultant, and Pratap Mullick, who had worked on the comics of Amar Chitra Katha, and later created Nagraj of Raj Comics, was brought in to design Bachchan’s avatar for the comics. But since Pratap was not a film buff, he wasn’t interested in taking this on. “I had to really coax him until he agreed. Pratap had not seen any Amitabh movies; he was far removed from films. So we made him watch some movies,” she recalled in a 2009 chat with Rediff. Bachchan had final say in approving his avatar so Pratap designed 8-10 looks, and Amitabh approved the one that was ultimately called Supremo. The costumed man had a mask over his eyes, a red body suit, with a yellow belt and a holster hanging off it. A dhoti-like skirt on top of his red pants with some long boots, and gloves. He had a walkman with some retro headphones and a chakra pendant as a locket.
Every edition of Supremo had a story, like a regular comic book. Here, the central character was Amitabh Bachchan, who is an actor and a star by day, but he turns into a superhero when there’s a crisis. He doesn’t have any superpowers, but he doesn’t really need any, because he can do it all anyway.
In the first edition of Supremo, he was described as a “bold, daring, courageous crime-fighter” who was the “master of a beautiful, paradisical island in the ocean.” He had a sidekick named Vijay, and in later editions, another one named Anthony – both named after popular Big B characters. Supremo was also supported by Sonali, his golden whale, who guarded the island, and Shaheen, his falcon, who sprang into action whenever danger lurked. She signals Amitabh Bachchan to become Supremo, and he jumps in to save the day.
One of the stories had Supremo saving a hijacked plane full of kids, another story had a Supremo impostor looting a bank, another story had a rare idol in the bottom of the ocean being robbed – almost all of them started from a film set where Amitabh Bachchan is shooting, and is signalled by Shaheen to come in and save the day.
The magazine was an ode to Amitabh’s superhero status, and the name was also derived from the impact he had on the masses. Pammi shared that once Amitabh was shooting with Randhir Kapoor in Goa, and every time he would land on set, crowds would go crazy. Watching this, Randhir had started saying, “Supremo has arrived.” Pammi liked the name, and after Bachchan’s approval, she went ahead with it.
Supremo had a new edition every month and stayed in publishing for about two years, with roughly 24 editions. Freelance writers were hired in the initial months but soon, fans started sending in stories from their end. Gulzar was the script consultant, and once in a while, he would talk to the readers via a letter in the comic book. In the first edition, he described Supremo as a “strange character.” “He doesn’t have any supernatural powers, but he’s so strong that he can easily perform superhuman feats, like going into space at will. That’s why he’s known as Supremo,” he wrote. A peanut loving superhero, who had a sense of humour, his passion was his music.
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Since the comic book came into being shortly after Amitabh’s near-fatal accident on the set of Coolie, there were often handwritten notes by the actor addressed to his readers. In one of the editions, Amitabh wrote, “Hello kids, I was deeply touched by your concern about my health. I’m well now and have resumed work on my incomplete films. Much as I’d like to thank you individually, I’m afraid that’s impossible. Nevertheless, I hope to keep contact with you all through my films and of course, ‘Supremo’.”
Pammi shared that after two years, she got married and moved out of the country. In her absence, no one took the comic book ahead, and it ceased to exist. One can only imagine its popularity if the publishers continued it. Who knows, this could have become a film or television show, or if nothing else, this would have been a desi comic book that could have created a larger universe.
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