She was India’s first caped crusader and she was created a good 4 years before Batman was conceived for the first time by Bob Kane and Bill Finger. Batman first appeared on the pages of Detective Comics (later DC) on March 30, 1939. Hunterwali released in Indian cinema halls around May 1935. The posters screamed, “Wadia Movietones presents Hunterwali, featuring Fearless Nadia”. It featured a woman sporting a mask, hot pants and boots, wielding a whip with abandon. Thereby a superstar and an abiding franchise was born. On the screen, Fearless Nadia was swashbuckling her way to glory, handling whips, guns and swords with equal panache, and displaying acrobatics the average Indian had never witnessed.