Bollywood’s animated action hero

It’s a bird. It’s a plane. It’s ... the superhero monkey god?

While Bollywood stars often achieve a mythical status in film-crazy India, Hanuman, the star of India’s first animation feature film, is a genuine deity drawn from the Hindu pantheon.

Over the years, India’s burgeoning animation and special effects industry has cut its teeth working for foreign production houses -- drawn to South Asia by lower costs -- but “Hanuman” is the industry’s first full-length, homegrown animation feature. It opens today.

In promos being aired on Indian TV, Hanuman, wearing an orange loincloth, gold armlets and anklets -- his long hair held in place with gold beads -- wields a mace as he battles fire-breathing dragons and ferocious demons in the 90-minute film.

European, Australian and American production houses have for years sent detailed scripts to India to have local graphic artists and animators sketch, paint and digitalize the content. But no feature cartoons have been produced specifically for Indians until now, apparently because it was felt there wasn’t a strong audience appetite for them.