At a time when superhero films was a genre associated with foreign films, Jaaved Jaaferi starred in the 2003 fantasy action comedy Jajantaram Mamantaram. The film gave India its own superhero, who would save people in a far-off village from an evil man called Jhamunda, played by Joy Fernandes. As the iconic film completes 20 years, Jaaferi recalls how shooting was a fun yet challenging experience .

“The entire film was very heavy on VFX. Back then, there was no green screen, so it used to be all blue around me. The difficult part was to act with no actors in front [of me]. There were matchsticks or wooden pieces placed here and there for cue. I had to deliver dialogues looking at those objects,” says the 59-year-old, who co-starred with Gulshan Grover and Manav Kaul in the film.

He elaborates, “For instance, if the film shows a dwarf sitting on my shoulder, I was talking to the matchstick placed on my shoulder. The only time I had an actor in front of me was during the climax, where I fight Jhamunda. That’s because we were both of the same size.” But, Jaaferi says the film gave him a lot of scope to learn as an actor, because to react without any action or reaction was quite a task.

The film is based on the famed novel Gulliver’s Travels, and the actor was fascinated by the idea of giving it a desi twist. “Gulliver’s Travels is a story we have all grown up listening to. Also, at that time, I was hosting Takeshi’s Castle (adventure task-based reality show). Kids loved that, so I agreed to come on board,” he tells us.

Jajantaram Mamantaram is a cult film, but it had a tough run at theatres. “Theatre owners were on some strike for around three weeks and because of that, we lost out on a lot of business. The film could have done much better otherwise. But, it still ended up becoming one of the most watched children’s movies on TV,” Jaaferi signs off.