Shaktimaan

Plot

Humanity existed in peace until the onset of the Kali Yuga, which brought greed and hatred, leading to its decline over 6,000 years. To restore balance, a mystical sect of saints known as the Suryanshis chose a man to rise against evil and protect society. He was trained in Kundalini Yoga to awaken his seven chakras, granting him mystical and supernatural abilities. As part of his training, he underwent the ritual of death, immersing his body in holy fire to attain complete control over his powers. When the five natural elements—fire, earth, water, wind, and sky—infused his being, he transformed into a superhuman. With his newfound powers, he vowed to eradicate corruption and injustice. Recognising his heroic deeds, journalist Geeta Vishwas named him Shaktimaan.

It is later revealed that Shaktimaan is the reincarnation of Shri Satya, a member of the Suryanshi Sect from the Mahabharata era 5,000 years ago. To maintain his secret identity, he assumes the persona of Pandit Gangadhar Vidyadhar Mayadhar Omkarnath Shastri, a comical and eccentric photographer who speaks in formal Hindi.

Shaktimaan's greatest adversary is Tamraj Kilvish, the embodiment of darkness and evil, who seeks to spread corruption and chaos.

Production

Development

Mukesh Khanna conceived Shaktimaan in 1981 while working on a film with Rajshri Productions. He shared the idea with producer Rajkumar Barjatya, and they planned to develop it as a film titled Aakash, but the project did not progress. Khanna later revived the concept under his own production banner, Bheeshm International, named after his acclaimed role as Bheeshma in Mahabharat (1988–1990).

In a 1997 interview with Screen, Khanna explained that the growing popularity of superhero content among children influenced his decision to create Shaktimaan. Observing his nephew's fascination with animated superhero shows, he saw an opportunity to introduce an Indian superhero. He noted that while Indian mythology featured powerful figures, it lacked a dedicated superhero like Superman or Spider-Man. This led him to create Shaktimaan, a character born from a yagna and the combined energies of the universe.

For Shaktimaan's alter ego, 'Pandit Gangadhar Vidhyadhar Mayadhar Omkarnath Shastri', Khanna wanted a distinct, comical persona to contrast with the superhero's powerful presence. The character's appearance, including buck teeth and floppy hair, was inspired by American comedian Jerry Lewis.

The series was sponsored by Parle-G from its debut episode. In 2004, sign language interpretation was introduced for the social messages delivered at the end of episodes to make them accessible to a wider audience.

Special effects

Mukesh Khanna aimed for Shaktimaan to feature the "best-ever" special effects on Indian television. However, after the series aired, he admitted that it fell short of his expectations. He had envisioned effects comparable to those in Superman,Independence Day (1996 film),Armageddon (1998 film),volcano (1997 film),2012 (film),Independence Day: Resurgence,Rambo: First Blood Part 2 Spider-Man1,2,3 and Terminator, but acknowledged that the availability of advanced computer graphics and trained professionals in India was limited at the time. The special effects for each episode cost ₹2 lakh, with a total expenditure of ₹10 lakh in 1997.

Release

Broadcast

Shaktimaan aired for 450 episodes on Doordarshan National from 13 September 1997 to 27 March 2005. The series was later dubbed and broadcast in multiple Indian languages, including Tamil on Doordarshan Tamil (then DD Podhigai) and Chutti TV, and in Odia on Tarang. Reruns aired on STAR Utsav and Dangal TV, while a re-edited version premiered on Pogo TV in 2006, including an English-dubbed version for the network.

In 2019, Mukesh Khanna stated on his YouTube channel, Bheeshm International, that the series was canceled due to high broadcasting costs, which resulted in financial losses. He clarified that the decision was not influenced by concerns over children imitating stunts from the show, as was widely speculated.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Shaktimaan was re-telecast on DD National from 1 April 2020 after the suspension of ongoing productions. It was also aired on DD Retro starting 13 April 2020.

Home media and streaming services

The series was released on DVD by Ultra India. The series was also launched on their YouTube channel on 17 February 2011. A Bhojpuri version was also launched on Ultra Kids Zone's YouTube channel in 2014.

The series was made available to stream on Amazon Prime Video in 2019.

Fictional biography

Origin

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 Suryanshi. They are followers of the star Sun. As part of the training, he trained with Kundalini Yoga to awake the 7 chakras of the body and gain 'supernatural' 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 the 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 superhuman 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.

Powers

Shaktimaan has superhuman powers that lie inside his body in his seven chakras of Kundalini attained through meditation. Shaktimaan worships God through the symbol Om. Truthfulness is his motto. He can even separate his body into five different bodies of fire, wind, water, earth, and sky. He is an expert, skilled and intelligent fighter and has fought with super-skilled enemies. He possesses physical powers like unlimited speed (up to the speed of light), strength, durability as well as psychic powers like telepathy, teleportation, telekinesis, etc.

Although he possesses godlike powers, his only weakness is a crystal (Papmani) possessed by Tamraj Kilvish which can be used to defeat and even kill him. This makes him powerless because it is filled with the evil of the world and is the source of the black powers. But he regains his strength after the crystal is taken away from him. He can be killed if the crystal is placed in front of him and he is treated violently to the verge of death. Shaktimaan also gets brief premonitions about the incidents that are going to happen to him in the future. This can be observed in Kashtak's episode, Geeta going to jail, and in Kapala's reappearance episodes.

Shaktimaan's powers are virtually limitless. He can do practically anything he imagines. The only limit to his powers is his own belief in himself and his knowledge of how to manifest his powers. His powers come from his chakras. (Note: Although we'll call them chakras in the Vedas, in the series dialogue they will also be called energy centers.)

The seven chakras in his body which give him powers are:

Energy Chakra (1): This chakra gives Shaktimaan super strength, enabling him to fly, shoot fire from his hands, emit rays from his fingertips, blow a stream of freezing air, or send out protective force fields which nothing can penetrate (provided he can maintain his willpower and not give in). Shaktimaan's strength allows him to physically penetrate anything and lift any object.

Creative Chakra (2): This chakra gives Shaktimaan the power to manifest things out of thin air.

Astral Chakra (3): This chakra gives Shaktimaan the power to control his astral body (a semi-transparent, ethereal duplicate of himself) which can fly, walk through walls, see inside objects, etc.

Personal life

To avoid being an easy prey of Tamraj Kilvish, Shaktimaan adopted an alter ego of Pandit Gangadhar Vidyadhar Mayadhar Omkarnath Shastri in the society. The character Gangadhar is completely opposite to that of Shaktimaan in all aspects, e.g. appearance, intelligence while he speaks pure Hindi. Whenever he gets an important job to do, he says that he has written a book on it which had never been published. Staying in society as a common person helped him to get knowledge about the crime. He got a job as a photographer for the newspaper Aaj Ki Awaaz after being interviewed by Geeta Vishwas. After a few weeks, he became a co-reporter working with Geeta. Through a series of incidents and the fact that he could never capture a photo of Shaktimaan, Geeta came to know about the dual identity of Shaktimaan, which was previously known only to Suryanshis. After Aaj Ki Awaaz was shut down, Gangadhar became a Hindi professor at a Tarun college. Later, he left the college to work for a news channel KR TV with Geeta.

Characters

Main characters

Actor Mukesh Khanna portrays the main character of the show Shaktimaan and his alter ego Gangadhar. In the show, Shaktimaan was depicted as a character who had attained superhuman powers through meditation and five elements of nature. He is trained by a mystical sect of saints to fight against all odds and defeat the evil prevailing within the society.

Shaktimaan's alter ego is Gangadhar, who is a funny geek. He works as a photographer in a daily newspaper office to maintain his secret identity. He is portrayed as the complete opposite of Shaktimaan.

Gita Vishwas (Vaishnavi Mahant, previously Kitu Gidwani), the female lead in the serial, used to work as a brave news reporter in Aaj Ki Awaaz. She was the first to report about Shaktimaan in a newspaper and named the superhero Shaktimaan. Incidentally, she was the only reporter to get interviews with Shaktimaan as Gangadhar used to accompany her as a photographer on missions. She died in a crash planned by Dr. Jackal. As Shaktimaan loved her, he brought her back to life again using his power, which resulted in losing his powers temporarily due to his against the nature actions. Gita came to know about this after Shaktimaan regained power with the vow that he will never repeat the same mistake again. To ensure this, she planned to leave the country. In the lead up to that situation, she got to know about Shaktimaan's dual character for the third time. But unlike the first two occasions, Shaktimaan didn't erase it from Gita's memory this time as she promised to keep it secret forever.

One year later‡, after Aaj Ki Awaaz was shut down, its staff members persuaded Gita in returning to India to join them to release Shaktimaan comics. Later, she teamed up with Gangadhar again and joined KR TV as a television reporter while working for the comics simultaneously.

‡ – When the journalist character Gita Vishwas was written out of the series, fan protests prompted the producers to bring her back.

He is a scientist who was Gita's father and Ranjit Singh's friend. He encountered Ranjit Singh while on an expedition to perform research at a mysterious valley, where he and his team were attacked by invisible figures (later revealed to be Tamraj Kilvish's servants) that shot fires at them and was rescued by Ranjit Singh. When he went to the city and returned to meet Ranjit Singh at the forest later, he found out that Ranjit Singh and the whole group of soldiers there had been killed. He writes the incidents in his diary. Many years later, Shaktimaan wanted to know more about Ranjit Singh from Gyanesh, as he didn't know Ranjit Singh was actually Shaktimaan's father and he was only raised by Pandit Vidyadhar Shastri. However, Gyanesh is killed by Dr. Jackal before it happens. Later, Gita gives Gangadhar Gyanesh's diary which helps him find out the truth.

Enemies

Tamraj Kilvish is Shaktimaan's archenemy and overall the main antagonist of the entire franchise. Tamraj means King of Darkness (Tama = darkness, raj = king) and Kilvish means shameful. He has lived 6000 years and is the source of evil in the world. He intends to rule the world by spreading darkness, hatred, sin, and evil. It is said that the source of his strength is one-half of the "Shakti Punj" (the half which is referred to as "Shaktiman") which he managed to retain after he originally obtained the entire Shakti Punj by deceit from Shri Satya (Satya means truth), the founder of the Suryavanshi. However, it is also mentioned that the source of his strength is the evil that is committed by people in this world.

It was later revealed that only Shri Satya can kill Tamraj Kilvish. After a death-defying adventure, Shaktimaan was told that he is the rebirth of Shri Satya. Shri Satya had given the exact time of the child's birth and the place before he died about 6000 years ago. Tamraj also knows this and this is the main reason he is frightened by the appearance of Shaktimaan as he knows that only Shaktimaan can kill Tamraj. He murdered Shaktimaan's parents and his adoptive father, Pandit Vidyadhar Shastri. He and his minion's plot to kill him but always fail. His minions include Electric-man (who can shoot lightning bolts from his body), Stone-man (who can shoot stones from his body), Plastica (who can stretch any part of her body), Dr. Jackal (an evil scientist), and others. Dr. Jackal has helped Kilvish in his various schemes by cloning Shaktimaan and also by turning aliens against him.

In the television series, Kilvish is often treated as the personification of darkness itself even though he was once a human being who later becomes very powerful and commits many evil deeds. In an attempt to become immortal, he left his mortal body and took an ethereal body that can't be killed but Shaktimaan is told that he has to kill all the evil in the world to destroy Tamraj's ethereal body. Kilvish's trademark quote is "Andhera Kaayam Rahe" (May Darkness Prevail), which is also used by his followers.

Kilvish's character evolves as the series progresses. In the beginning episodes of Shaktimaan, his face is never shown and his voice is different from the voice that he uses in the later episodes of Shaktimaan, in which his role is played by Surendra Pal. Later his face deforms to become a distorted wolf-like face.

Dr. "Jackal" Vishvamitra Shandilya is an evil scientist who works for Kilvish. His earlier intention was not that of becoming evil. However, when he was denied scholarship for research, Kilvish provided him with funds and labs; this made him a supporter of Kilvish and helped him become an evil scientist.

Other characters

The family of three daughter-in-laws

A family with three daughters-in-law from three different communities, Rachna (Punjabi), Shalini (Bengali), and a South Indian always fights with each other. Gangadhar as a servant and cook enters the family and creates happiness among them.

Mr. Sabkar

An alien space guard, who is extremely powerful but not evil. He is on the side of truth and he is so powerful that bullets, electricity, etc. do not harm him, his mind works faster than computers and can also fly. Therefore, his name is Sabkar. Sab means "everything" and kar means " done". He can do many things which are beyond a normal human-like he can stay underwater for hours without breathing. He became popular by name Sabkar in media particularly in Krtv channel in which Geeta and Gangadhar work and so they were sent for Sabkar interview to know if he is another identity of Shaktimaan. He (along with Sheena another powerful space guard) was in the process of killing the germs of Kitanuman when Dr. Jackal attacked them and they had to flee. Even Suriyanshis do not know about it. He (along with Sheena) is the owner of InterGalactic Prison. Later in a spaceship, they follow Jaikal but Jaikal blasts their spaceship, and Mr. Sabkar and Sheena are badly injured and turn. So Shaktimaan finds a special flower to save them and in the process, he catches Dr. Jackal and then freezes him along with the others in the InterGalactic Prison (A prison made in a galaxy near the sun made by the space guards Mr. Subkar and Sheena). When Mr. Subkar and Sheena are saved they are about to leave, the mayor of the city, Kumar Ranjan comes and names them foreign spies living visas and does not allow them to go. Later to defame Shaktimaan he spreads a virus in the city and says it is done by the space guards. Also, he kidnaps Mr. Subkar and Sheena and tells it's done by Shaktimaan and an arrest comes out for Shaktimaan, but Mr. Subkar and Sheena brings the truth by showing the real face of Kumar Ranjan.

Sheena

Another powerful space guard. She first came to the earth in her space, when Shaktimaan tried to stop her he was attacked by powerful rays from her space. Like Mr. Subkar's electricity and bullets do not harm her, her mind is faster than a computer and she can also fly. She (along with Mr. Subkar) is the owner of InterGalactic Prison. Sheena and Mr. Subkar were the first people who saw Shaheb's real face and made him arrested by the police. Later in a spaceship, they follow Jaikal but Jaikal blasts their spaceship, and Mr. Subkar and Sheena are badly injured and turn. So Shaktimaan finds a special flower to save them and in the process, he catches Dr. Jackal and then freezes him along with the others in the Inter-Galactic Prison (A prison made in a galaxy near the sun made by the space guards Mr. Subkar and Sheena). When Mr. Subkar and Sheena are saved they are about to leave Mayor of the city Kumar Ranjan comes and names them foreign spy living visas and does not allow them to go. Later to defame Shaktimaan he spreads a virus in the city and says it is done by the space guards. Also kidnaps Mr. Subkar and Sheena and tells it's done by Shaktimaan and an arrest comes out for Shaktimaan, but Mr. Subkar and Sheena bring the truth by showing the real face of Kumar Ranjan.

Reception

In an interview with Nupur Rekhi of Indiantelevision.com, Khanna told that he has even received letters from the external affairs minister and then Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee saying that he has done a very good thing in choosing the role of Shaktimaan and keeping up with it. He has been featured in The Asian Wall Street Journal on the front page reflecting on Shaktimaan's (and hence Khanna's) positive influence on children.

When Shaktimaan aired on Doordarshan, there were a lot of controversies created as children set themselves on fire or jumped off buildings hoping that Shaktimaan would save them. In an effort to promote responsible behaviour among children, Mukesh Khanna spent a substantial part of the airtime in explaining to the children that the stunts shown on television were not real and should not be emulated. Khanna also stated that most of the controversies were fake and were raised in the media to undermine its popularity.

The series was also popular in Bhutan, even before the introduction of a national television channel. Students skipped Saturday classes to watch the show, while drawings of the title character were drawn by local children in roads, walls and books.

Other media

Shaktimaan has generated other media including comic books, Animated series, Television film, and YouTube mini-episodes with characters from the series.

Comic books

Comic books appeared featuring Shaktimaan and published in many Indian languages as well as English in association with Diamond Comics and Raj Comics. Raj Comics published 13 titles.

Shaktimaan: The Animated Series (2011–2012)

Shaktimaan: The Animated Series produced by Reliance Animation was aired on Sonic from 2011 to 2012.

Hamara Hero Shaktimaan (2013)

Hamara Hero Shaktimaan (Our Hero Shaktimaan) is a television film that aired on Pogo TV on 30 June 2013.

Sorry Shaktimaan (2019–present)

On 15 March 2019, a show named Sorry Shaktimaan started on a YouTube channel having the same name. It is the educational section of Shaktimaan.

Dhamaka (2020)

A Shaktimaan reference was made in the 2020 Malayalam language romantic comedy film Dhamaka in which a character visualises another character as Shaktimaan. Mukesh Khanna initially wanted to take legal action against the makers but later allowed them to use the reference.

Shaktimaan film trilogy

Shaktimaan is an upcoming Indian superhero film in the franchise. Mukesh Khanna officially confirmed on his official YouTube channel that he is making Shaktimaan not only with Sony Pictures Networks India but with Sony International. On 10 February 2022, SPE India made the announcement on Twitter with a short concept video showing the rise of Shaktimaan. It was also reported that the film would be part of a trilogy.

Future

On 8 November 2024, Mukesh Khanna, owner of Bheeshm International, released a teaser video on the company's YouTube channel announcing the anticipated return of Shaktimaan. The teaser featured memorable scenes from the original series and hinted at the revival of the character, with Khanna stating, "It's time for him to return."