The Iconic Meeting That Led To The Creation Of The Indian Spiderman
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Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse has created a buzz among Marvel fans. The film is a sequel to the Oscar-winning animated film Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which features different versions (or variants) of the superhero from across the multiverse coming together to defeat a common enemy. But one 'variant' stands out from the rest: Pavitr Prabhakar (Earth-50101), also known as Indian Spider-Man. However, Pavitr would have never existed if two cinematic icons had never met.
The transformation was initially brought about by the revolutionary Indian director Satyajit Ray. Ray had once met Stan Lee in New York explicitly to discuss creating an Indian variant of the superhero. Lee was completely dazzled by Ray's feedback and requested that he send him a few ideas for the character. Ray allegedly put his vision in writing; however, he was unable to see the realization of his forward-thinking ideas during his lifetime.
Unfortunately, Ray passed away before the books could be made. During the 2000s, DC and Marvel comics had already started gaining popularity in Indian cities with their imprints being distributed as inexpensive, mass-produced comics by Gotham Entertainment Group. Gotham was founded in 1997 by Suresh Seetharaman and Sharad Devarajan, both of whom are comic book creators.
This collaboration between Gotham's team and Marvel gave birth to a four-part comic book miniseries "Spider-Man India". In it, Pavitr Prabhakar is a simple Indian boy from a remote village who moves to Mumbai, where he is bestowed with the powers of a spider by an old yogi so he can fight the evil that threatens the world. Other characters in the book include his Auntie Maya, Uncle Bhim, Doctor Octopus, and, of course, Pavitr's old flame, Meera Jain.
The series came to fruition many years later in 2005, when India was opening up to the international comic book market. This was a time when there were no Marvel and DC cinematic franchises present in the country. It was expected to attract more Indian readers to Marvel comics, but Spider-Man India soon faded from Indian mainstream culture.
We are hosting a discussion & presentation on Satyajit Ray curated by Sumit Ray at Records.Coffee in Bandra.
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