The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s latest summit was supposed to be about trade and security – with a dash of geopolitics. But on certain Indian TV channels, it looked more like a superhero sequel nobody asked for.

The SCO summit in China, attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, wasn’t just another photo-op. Russia, India, China, and Central Asian states signed over 20 agreements, including the Tianjin Declaration, greenlit new security and crime-fighting centres, and even approved an SCO Development Bank. 

Though geopolitics loomed large due to the circumstances – the Trump tariffs. 

American media painted a broader picture: Xi leveraging the summit to signal a new global order, framed against Donald Trump’s tariff wars and Washington’s unpredictability. The Wall Street Journal bluntly called the Modi–Xi–Putin optics “a message to Trump”. British outlets had similar views. An editorial in the Guardian noted that the tariff war has boosted China. “White House wanted India to bow. Instead, Narendra Modi flew to China, shook Xi Jinping’s hand and left Washington sidelined,” it said.

Chinese media, meanwhile, placed Xi Jinping at centre stage. The Global Times splashed his meetings across front pages, calling the summit “fruitful” and proof that ties with India were “back on the right track”. Coverage framed Xi as the architect of a stabilising Asian order. 

But if you switched to certain Indian TV shows, this global context was swallowed up by a fever-dream of primetime imagination.

DD News

In his show Decode on DD News, anchor Sudhir Chaudhary couldn’t stop gushing about the supposed bonhomie between Modi, Putin, and Xi.  

“PM Modi and President Putin met Chinese President Xi Jinping. The conversation among the three leaders began in such a way that it felt as if they were old friends meeting after a very long time,” he said. 

He linked their ‘friendship’ to the movie Trishul, saying that if  “a movie poster were made for the SCO Summit today, it would appear just like the one you see on your screen right now.”

“This is the new ‘Trishul’ of global diplomacy, which could mark the beginning of major changes at the international level…It felt as though these three powerful world leaders had formed a new alliance. You could call it the Trishul of world politics,” said Chaudhary. 

The show features an AI-generated video of three horses, bearing the flag colours of India, China, and Russia, pulling a carriage with the globe. 

Chaudhary explains this “troika”. “In Russia, troika means a coalition of three people, or a chariot pulled by three horses. And in this case, the three horses could be India, Russia, and China. You could say that this troika has now begun to form in response to Trump’s tariffs. This is a significant development: these three countries have set aside their mutual differences,” he said.

Chaudhary later fussed over pictures of Modi and Putin talking inside a car. Calling it ‘car diplomacy’,  he dubbed it the “most unusual meetings in the world” and “a new chapter in diplomacy”. Modi’s ‘car diplomacy’ is nothing new; he has chatted with world leaders like Barack Obama, and Shinzo Abe, among others, inside a car since 2014.  

“There was a time when three big heroes featured in a film and this was seen as a guarantee of the film’s success. If there was a film on strategy today, these three (Modi, Xi and Putin) would be the big heroes today,” he said.

Republic Bharat

In its coverage of Modi’s visit to China, Republic Bharat couldn’t contain its excitement and went ahead and displayed an edited image of a supposed welcome ‘drone show’ for PM Modi. This image, which was also widely shared on social media, was doctored. 

“There are grand preparations underway in China. We’re about to show you images of the arrangements China has made – “Modi, welcome to China.” These images reflect how Prime Minister Narendra Modi is making India increasingly prosperous, and how even China, which is counted among the world’s superpowers, is now according India a position of high stature,” the anchor said.    

News18

In a thumbnail, the news channel edited faces of Modi, Putin, and Xi onto superhero bodies, with the headline ‘The Tianjin Troika’. While News18 was culturally appropriate with its editing – Modi as the Indian Shaktiman and Putin as the Russian Red Guardian – Xi was shown wearing medieval armor.

As the SCO summit grabbed headlines, Trump lashed out on Twitter. He argued that America had long endured a one-sided trade relationship with India – one where New Delhi exported massively to the US while keeping out American businesses with high tariffs. Trump added that India remained dependent on Russia for oil and defence supplies, and while it had now offered to cut tariffs, “it’s too late and should have happened years ago”.

This was a scoreboard moment for some.

CNN-News18’s Rahul Shivshankar tweeted: “RATTLED TRUMP SWAPS BOMBAST FOR A MEASURED TONE. Read his first reaction post the SCO Summit.”

News18 India’s Rubika Liyaquat tweeted: “कितना explain करना पड़ता है न!”

India Today’s Shiv Aroor tweeted: “BREAKING: 🥱” and “Something tells me this is indicative of an offramp”.

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