By Piyush M Padwale
According to reports, renowned Malayalam actor-director Basil Joseph worked on the film adaptation of the popular Shaktimaan television series from the 1990s. The show starred Mukesh Khanna and ran from 1997 to 2005. The show had a huge influence on the audience. It sparked many discussions and excitement once it was announced that it would be remade into a feature film in Bollywood.
Over the years, the project has undergone several discussions and disagreements, reaching a point where it just seems like a far-fetched dream, stuck on ice, possibly shelved, as there seems to be just no progress.
At the recently hosted Malayala Manorama awards, Basil Joseph told Anurag Kashyap that he feels he “wasted two years” of his life in the attempt to make Shaktimaan a reality in Bollywood. Joseph also spoke of the challenges of dealing with people’s egos in the industry and questioned Anurag about how he’s surprised to see people surviving in environments like these.
Anurag Kashyap notes he completely resonates with the feelings and frustrations carried by Basil, implicitly agreeing with him and stating that, for this very reason, he has partly moved away from Bollywood, as it just becomes really tough after a point of time.
At the same time, Kashyap praises Joseph’s acting work, calling some of his protagonists “good common man” hero roles. Basil Joseph rose to fame in 2021 with his Malayalam superhero directorial Minnal Murali, a film that garnered worldwide recognition for creating a cinematic masterpiece on such a minimal budget.
Meanwhile, in recent years, Anurag Kashyap has been working across several regional industries, garnering great critical acclaim for his performance in the 2024 Vijay Sethupathi starrer Maharaja, and has returned to the director’s chair with his most recent release in September, the film Nishaanchi.