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17-07-2023
Bureau Report + Agencies
NEW DELHI: An Indian Spider-Man is making waves this summer as he swings onto screens in a dhoti (sarong-like garment), gold cuffs and an enviable mop of jet black hair, spouting cultural lessons for his guests from across the multiverse.
He appears in Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – which has spent recent weeks breaking box office records in India. It grossed $2.8m (£2.17m) in its opening weekend alone – the highest debut for an animated film in the country.
That might not come as a surprise, given the popularity in India of Spider-Man – one of the few characters from the West’s comic book universe to make an impact in a country where pop culture is largely dominated by the Hindi film industry.
The superhero’s films have been among the top-grossing Hollywood films in India since 2007, spawning numerous local knock-offs. This includes a love song, whose funny lyrics – “Spider-Man, tune churaya mere dil ka chain” (Spider-Man, Spider-Man, you stole my heart) – have earned a cult status in the country but the latest film is a lot more special because it features an Indian version of the superhero for the first time ever.
Meet Pavitr Prabhakar, a messy teen who guards the streets of Mumbattan – a mashup of Manhattan and Mumbai. His name is a play on Peter Parker, the teen behind the original Spider-Man mask.
Pavitr is among the five different spider stars all from alternate realties but connected through their shared powers who team up with teen hero Miles Morales to stop a wily supervillain.
Pavitr’s depiction has been praised by fans across the world, especially Indians who’ve been won over by his exuberant personality.
Some have fallen in love with the tropical, curvy art-style for the Mumbattan sequence of the film, an homage to the Indrajal Comics from 1970s, an Indian imprint known for publishing stories about the Phantom and Mandrake the Magician in regional languages.
Others have praised the way the film bands together characters of different backgrounds to create a first-of-its-kind multi-ethnic team of superheroes.
“First Marvel gave us first black Spider-Man, Miles Morales and now we have Pavitr. The story is trying to touch on an exciting idea: that anyone can be Spider-Man,” says Mrityunjoy Pal, an ardent comic fan.
