first indian superhero(shaktimaan)

Shaktimaan (Hindi: शक्तिमान) is a fictional Indian superhero from the television series of the same name produced by Mukesh Khanna and directed by Dinkar Jani. Around 400 episodes of the series originally aired on Doordarshan, India's national television network, from 27 September 1997 (barring the introductory episode on 20 September 1997) to 27 March 2005, on Sundays at 12 noon IST. The telecast slot, however was shifted to 9:30 a.m. for the last episodes. It has also aired on Pogo in English, Tarang inOriya, and Chutti TV in Tamil, and repeated its Hindi telecast on STAR Utsav. Mukesh Khanna plays the roles of Shaktimaan, the main protagonist and his alter ego Pandit Gangadhar Vidyadhar Mayadhar Omkarnath Shastri, a photographer for the newspaperAaj Ki Aawaz. Shaktimaan is depicted as a human who has attained superhuman strength and power through deep meditation and attaining control over five elements of life. Kitu Gidwani, and later Vaishnavi Mahant plays the role of Geeta Vishwas, a reporter in the series who loves Shaktimaan. Surendra Pal plays the role of Tamraj Kilvish, the main antagonist in the series.

Origin of Shaktimaan[edit]

Shaktimaan received powers from seven gurus who trained and blessed him with "yogic shakti which was natural power." He was the chosen warrior against evil by siddha gurus of a cult named Suryavanshi. They are followers of the star Sun. As part of training he trained with Kundalini Yoga to waken the 7 chakras of body and gain 'super natural' powers from them. To gain complete control over his powers he performed the ritual of death. However, this did not cause death but made him more alive than when he was a normal man. He also performed Yajna in which he entered the fire himself and dissolved his body in fire. Then, the five elements of life, i.e. fire, wind, water, earth, sky revived his body giving him special powers from them. Thus after leaving his mortal body he was given a super human form to fight against the evil in the world as Shaktimaan.

After Shaktimaan was created he set out to destroy his archenemy Kilvish. But, as the Mahaguru (Tom Alter) explained, Kilvish can only be defeated after evil is destroyed. Shaktimaan's mission is to destroy the sin within people, not the sinned people. Shaktimaan's adventures show him pursuing justice and saving his friends while Kilvish and his minions plot to defeat him.