"Until now, we have only been translating comics. this is the first attempt to trans-create a character" Sharad Devarajan, President & CEO, Gotham India

It's the last frontier, and true to form, the comic book character with the second most complex psyche after Batman, powerful-yet-vulnerable, wracked-by-self-doubt, Spidey aka Spider-Man is exploring it first. It's a long way from New York, where the original comics are based to Mumbai, where the Indian one will be, especially given the route Gotham Entertainment Group, the US-based company that is the licensee for a range of comics-think dc, Marvel, Dark Horse, MAD, Warner Brothers-in South Asia, has chosen to take. That route isn't translation, although the company has done that in the past, with several characters. This comes with a risk all its own-the cultural context is all wrong and the dialogues sound downright ludicrous in some cases-although Gotham's success in India (it sells around 500,000 comics a month, boasts an estimated readership, monthly aggregate if you must know, of five million, and publishes in more than 10 Indian languages, including Hindi, Tamil, Gujarati, Bengali, Telugu, Punjabi, and Malayalam) indicates that the company has its measure.

What Gotham has chosen to do, and this must surely be a first, is convince Marvel Comics, the company that owns Spider-Man (that's the right way to spell the superhero's name) to agree to a culturally relevant adaptation. Put simply, that means Spider-Man will be recreated in an Indian context layer by layer. So, Pavitr Prabhakar gets his powers after he meets with and is blessed by a Hindu holy man, unlike Peter Parker, who got his after being bitten by a radioactive spider. He will wear the more-Indian-than-Indian attire of a dhoti and jhootis and swing his way around the Taj Mahal, Gateway of India, and Qutab Minar. Parker, for the uninitiated, swung his way around the high-rises of New York. And the Green Goblin and Mary Jane of the original have become an evil Rakshasa (read: demon) and Maya.

This, then, is new territory for Gotham too, a company founded by two comics-obsessed men Sharad Devarajan, a 28-year old US citizen of Indian origin who is President and CEO and Suresh Seetharaman, a 45-year old Indian who is the Chief Operating Officer. The duo, and the company they founded, are in the super-hero business, and are of the firm belief that comics of the kind they publish have a future in a world increasingly dominated by 24-hour television, PS2, X-box, Gamecube, the net, and other varied attractions. Super-heroes fight the good fight, points out Devarajan, and in a complex and uncertain world, they provide a safe place of sorts. Good always triumphs, he adds. There's no denying the logic of Deverajan's argument, not when Gotham sells around 500,000 comics every month. Nor is there a flaw in the company's business model. "Five years ago, we realised that the comics segment in the country was under-served," says Seetharaman. "There was a huge opportunity waiting to be tapped - poor quality drawings, over-emphasis on historical and mythological characters, unsophisticated plots and high price deterred growth."

Jeevan Kang, the chief artist of Gotham, is the man who will design the Indian Spider-Man comics. "Until now, we have only been translating comics," says Devarajan. "This is the first attempt to trans-create a character." Marvel will still have to sign off on the comic, he adds, but the look will definitely be Indian.

The world over, most comics aren't doing too well, although the traditional niche readership of adult comics (adult as in serious, not pornographic) and graphic novels is swelling. India, then, represents the great white hope for comics companies and Gotham has been quick to spot the opportunity. The metros may still have enough children who are comfortable reading the original Spider-Man in the original context, but if it is a mass market play that is on Gotham's mind then the Pavitr Prabhakar approach is bang-on. "There is also a large ethnic audience in the US that will identify with him (Pavitr)," says Devarajan, who hopes to take the series-the first issue is out in August-global. And keeping in mind the phenomenal success of the two Spider-Man motion pictures (the first had box office takings of $821 million, and the second earned more than $40 million on the day of its release), Bollywood is definitely on his mind.

Gotham, explains Seetharaman, wants to create a comics culture in India. "The market needs to be segmented and categorised," he explains. "If the drawings are good, the plot sophisticated and the price smart, there is every possibility of attracting adults." The company's long-term goal is to have its own portfolio of characters. "You will see action in December," promises Devarajan. But first comes August, and the Spider-Man experiment. Will it swing?

Watchmen Redux
The inside story of how India's Parliament managed the transition from a low-tech high-security fortress to a hi-tech, high-security one.

Attempt 1: A white Ambassador with a mp (Member of Parliament) sticker displayed prominently tries to steal into the premises housing Parliament House. It is stopped at the entry gate and the driver duly produces a RFID (radio frequency identification) enabled card for the vehicle; however the photograph of the two drivers that comes up on the screen (and submitted by the member in question) doesn't match his. The car, despite the fact that it is ferrying a member protesting vehemently against the indignity of it all, is turned away. "You can proceed on foot, sir," says the guard.

Attempt 2: Parliament House is in a flurry. A bomb threat has been received and an evacuation is being carried out. The problem: a senior minister, one not exactly known for his nimbleness is missing. Fortunately, his last read location, courtesy his RFID-enabled card, is available in the central database. He is found asleep in one corner of the canteen.

All seats of power are fortresses of sorts. India's Parliament House too is, although on December 13, 2001, five terrorists managed to breach the complex's defenses with a mixture of Trojan-horse-style deceit and plain old-fashioned luck. Soon after, the government constituted a 10-member Joint Parliamentary Committee to review issues related to the security of Parliament House. Like other committees of its ilk, this one visited the US, UK, France, and Germany (all study trips). And unlike other ones, its recommendations came quickly and have been implemented as speedily. Members of this, the 14th Lok Sabha, have been issued the RFID-enabled cards referred to in the opening anecdote (the first of two made-up ones). Developed by public sector firm ECIL, which did not speak to Business Today for this article, the card is a must for anyone, or anything (cars, say) wanting to enter the complex or the building. Everytime a member passes a checkpoint, and there are several, all information regarding him, including his picture pops up on a screen; a mismatch automatically bars the gates and sets off an alarm. RFID addresses the small but important matter of esteemed members of Parliament holding out their cards to a lowly policeman (one reason why proof of identity has never gone down well with mps); today, they just need to carry the card, or wear it around their neck; the readers do the rest. With cards for the mps (those for members of the Rajya Sabha are just being issued), for some 8,000 workers, and for journalists covering Parliament proceedings, it has also now become possible to make entry to various parts of the complex completely need-based.

RFID isn't the only hi-tech thingamajig on display at Parliament House. The complex now boasts a perimeter protection system installed by Ibex Gallagher, a Bangalore-based security company, which essentially comprises electrified fencing of the variety that, apart from giving intruders an unpleasant shock, sets of an alarm, and even informs the central computer about which one of its 30 zones has been 'compromised'. Then, there are sophisticated road blockers, tyre killers, and barriers imported from the US and Germany and integrated by ECIL into a multi-layered access system (the public sector company served as a system integrator of sorts for the entire project, which cost Rs 108 crore).

The details: only four of the nine gates to the complex are used for entry. Each gate has two controls: one at the gate itself, and the other in the central control room. The first check is a barrier that is linked to the RFID reader. If this is breached, the second check, a set of 24-inch spikes (tyre killers) is automatically raised. And the third check is a road-blocker that is designed to upturn vehicles. Will these help the cause of security? Yes, but only if, as in the first anecdote, members without RFID cards are turned away. For the record, they still aren't. "It is after all their house and nothing that can trouble them will ever work," explains Ajay Chadha, Joint Secretary, Watch and Ward Service of Parliament. So there.

-Supriya Shrinate