Crossword for Sunday 20 September 2026

Across

1. 1. Fall behind
2. 4. Half of the genre with robots and spaceships
3. 7. A dog can give you one, or you can find one on the way home from the office
4. 10. With 22D, green superhero who shoots snakes
5. 11. Smallest paper note of this currency is called a "coin"
6. 12. (Sanskrit) Prefix meaning 'supreme' or 'first'
7. 13. (Hindi) Spin this grid about its center and you see one; also a superhero
8. 15. abbr. What the Indian government used to call an ABCD, say
9. 17. A polo jersey
10. 18. The tailor-turned-superhero from Kerala
11. 20. What the ampersand stands for
12. 21. Energetic
13. 25. abbr. Form of AI that could hypothetically surpass human capabilities
14. 26. Translucent brown bath soap
15. 27. abbr. Ajit Doval's job
16. 28. Long-term storage container for a pickle, say

Down

1. 1. Premier Delhi woman's college that counts Nidhi Razdan and Maneka Gandhi as alumni
2. 2. Music maker for Toonpur ka Superrhero
3. 3. What you need to mind when boarding a metro
4. 4. Landing on one forces you to go down several rows, in a popular board game
5. 5. "Area of Operations", for an IAS officer, say
6. 6. abbr. The country's busiest airport
7. 8. Scouting before the strike, in short
8. 9. Sonam Wangchuk's hometurf
9. 14. The shot-caller behind Jawan
10. 15. Sends a message online
11. 16. Mister with a 'watch of invisibility'
12. 18. Word following Shakti and Aarya
13. 19. Zomato or Swiggy
14. 22. See 10A
15. 23. Crises averted and villains defeated, say, for a superhero
16. 24. abbr. Man behind Aarogyasri Healthcare