Not Mr India, Ajooba, Krrish; but this 90-year-old movie gave India's first superhero; film ran 25 weeks, it is..

In 1935, Homi Wadia of Bombay's Wadia Movietone came up with an answer to Hollywood's Mask of Zorro. The movie was Hunterwali, and it starred Nadia (known as Fearless Nadia), an Australian stuntwoman who had grown up in India.

Hunterwali is the story of Princess Madhuri who fights injustice as the masked crusader Hunterwali (The lady with the whip).

For this film, Nadia performed all her stunts in the film, including horseriding, whip use, and even some of the heavy-duty fight scenes. The film was released with much fanfare and it went on to become a huge success. The film reportedly ran for 25 weeks.

In the 1930s India got its very own film franchise. After Hunterwali's success, Nadia was cast in several other stunt films in the 1930s, playing masked vigilantes in many of them, including Miss Frontier Mail (1936), Diamon Queen (1940), and Jungle Princess (1942). 

In 1943, she reprised her role as Princess Madhuri in Indian cinema's first-ever sequel – Hunterwali Ki Beti. This, too, was a roaring success.

Nadia continued to act in stunt films for a few more years, after which she moved to character roles in selective films. Her final screen appearance was in the 1968 release, Khiladi. After Nadia, the superhero genre was revived in the 1980s by Amitabh Bachchan with Toofan and Ajooba. A few years later, Anil Kapoor came with Mr India, followed by Mukesh Khanna's iconic serial Shaktimaan in the late 90s, and the Krrish franchise in mid-2000.