When Spiderman speaks in
Hindi By Siddharth Srivastava
NEW DELHI - Indian call center executives
masquerading as American citizens; Hollywood
blockbusters such as Jurassic Park being dubbed
in Hindi; now we have American pop culture superhero
Spiderman being done up for the desi (local)
audience in India. The makeover will be complete in
every sense as Marvel Comics, the makers of the comic
book hero, who was recently voted as the number one
dream dad by kids in England, are looking to completely
"trans-create" rather than just "translate" the new
avatar.
Thus Peter Parker of Queens, the hero
under the classic Spiderman mask, will be replaced by a
young Indian boy named Pavitr Prabhakar from Mumbai, who
will leap around rickshaws and scooters in crowded
Indian streets, and swing from monuments such as the
Qutub Minar and the Taj Mahal. Mumbai's first
web-swinging super hero will be joined by a
re-incarnation of the classic Spiderman villain, the
Green Goblin, as Rakshasa, an Indian mythological demon.
"Written by Jeevan Khang, it will be a series of
comics which we plan to bring out starting August this
year. The comics will be released in all major cities
across the country," Gotham Entertainment Group,
alliance partners of Marvel Comics, have announced.
Spiderman will draw his powers from a yogi while
his girlfriend Marie would now be Meera Jain, and his
aunt will be called Maya. Spiderman India will solve
Indian problems and don Indian attire, even a
jooti (traditional shoes) and dhoti
(Indian wrap-around worn by men). Marvel Comics
announced last week that the character would be
introduced in four issues to cover roughly 5 million
comics readers in India, which will be a test case for
how makriman (Hindi for spider) is received by
Indians.
"Spiderman India interweaves the local
customs, culture and mystery of modern India, with an
eye to making Spiderman's mythology more relevant to
this particular audience," Marvel and Gotham have
announced.
In India, Gotham Entertainment brings
out comics in English, Hindi, Bengali, Tamil and
Malayalam, but it will be the first time that a
superhero will be seen in an ethnic identity anywhere in
the world.
"We feel this is one of the most
exciting and unique projects in comic history," Gotham
chief executive officer Sharad Devarajan said in a
statement. "Unlike traditional translations of American
comics, Spiderman India will become the first-ever
'trans-creation', where we reinvent the origin of a
Western property like Spiderman so that he is an Indian
boy in Mumbai and dealing with local problems and
challenges."
Spiderman India is not an isolated
happening. American mass entertainment successes have
been continually marketed to tap a wider audience in
India in the past few years. Friends has been
dubbed in Hindi, Cartoon Network, immensely popular with
kids here, has cartoons dubbed in Indian languages and
also created new Indian characters such as Tenali Raman;
McDonald's mcaloo tikki (potato) burger is a hit
with young and old patrons.
However, it is
perhaps for the first time that an American action hero
is being accorded such a wholesome changeover to suit
local tastes. Indeed, localizing a worldwide phenomenon
is the new global mantra, and not without reason as it
makes good business sense.
Shaktimaan, an Indian
version of Superman produced by Indians, has achieved
cult status across India, specially semi-urban areas,
with several unfortunate instances of kids trying to
emulate the daredevilry of their hero losing their lives
in such attempts.
Hollywood has turned comic
book characters such as Superman and Spiderman into
billion-dollar brands, with the Indian market being
increasingly perceived as being very receptive to such
movies. India tops the list of Hollywood studios this
summer, with movies such as Warner Bros' Harry Potter
and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Twentieth Century Fox's
The Day After Tomorrow being released
simultaneously in India, the US and Europe. Hollywood is
making all efforts to focus attention on India and push
theater collections on movies like Spiderman-2,
Shrek-2, Laws of Attraction, Troy,
King Arthur, Kill Bill-2 and Cat
Dog slated for the summer. Hollywood studios see
India as the region's biggest market after China.
English movies, including dubbed versions, account for
just about 10% of the US$1.3 billion annual box office
collections in India, but they are growing by over 30%.
In the recent past, 3D films have started raking
in business, smashing ratings across the world. Shrek
2, the DreamWorks-generated cartoon sequel, has
already smashed all records, picking up $314 million on
the US domestic market in 18 days, making it the fastest
film in history to surpass the $300 million mark. Last
year, Pixar Animation's Finding Nemo became the
second highest grosser ($340 million) of 2003.
The re-invention of Spiderman is perhaps the
strongest indication of the qualitative growth of the
animation industry in India, and recognition by the West
of a powerful market. As a matter of fact, top Indian
director Shekhar Kapoor, who now makes Hollywood movies,
predicted at a recent Bollywood award ceremony in
Singapore that as countries like India and China rival
Western economic superpowers, there will be a reverse
cultural colonization. "We will still have Spiderman,
but when Spiderman takes off his mask, he will probably
be Chinese or Indian," Kapoor remarked.
Well,
it's turning out to be true sooner than imagined.
Siddharth Srivastava is a New
Delhi-based journalist.
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