A still from Spider-man 2

Na jaane kyun…ghar jal gaya… This is a song from a forthcoming blockbuster, but neither Shah Rukh nor Hrithik is going to sing it. The man featured in the number will be Spiderman.

With Spider-man 2 — which took off in the US theatres on June 30 to a rousing $40.5 million opening, a record for Wednesday releases — ready to swing into action in Indian cinemas with its July 23 release, the half-insect-half-human American icon is set to become even more hybrid.

First Marvel Comics, Spiderman’s publisher, announced in the US that there will be Hindi comic book version of the flying hero, an Indian named Pavitr Prabhakar (after Peter Parker of the original), to be launched next month. Then comes the Hindi music video.

Riding on the popularity of the first part, Spider-man 2, like George Bush the second, wants to make the most of the strong bond developing between India and Pakistan. As India is one of Hollywood’s biggest emerging markets, especially for the dubbed blockbusters, for the first time Spiderman’s mother studio and distributor Columbia Tristar has added a Hindi song to one of its products. That too sung by a Pakistani band, a Bollywood staple now.

Strings, a leading Pakistani rock-pop group — one of the four bands from across the LoC that happened to be in Mumbai at the same time last week — has sung the number Na jaane kyun for Spiderman for the Indian market. Sony Music, which belongs to the Sony family with Columbia Tristar, will shortly release the music video of Na jaane kyun, part of Strings’ album Dhaani that was launched in India a month ago. The video will feature the two-member band and montages from Spider-man 2. The number will also be a part of the Spider-man album, though it is not yet certain whether it will be played in theatres.

Localisation, says Columbia, is the key to the Indian market, as well as other markets outside the English-speaking countries. “It will be the way music is marketed for a Hindi film,” says Vikramjit Roy, head of publicity and acquisitions, Columbia Tristar Films of India. “Columbia’s Indian strategy is to go wide.”

The Hindi song — which appears at a time when Toby Maguire as Spiderman broods why he has to give up so many things because he is Spiderman, why is he a loser, a universal enough sentiment — will be supported by more than 250 prints, English and dubbed, for theatres.

Spiderman’s latest avatar will climb into other zones of Indian consciousness. He will cast his web over Indian comics, by appearing through quizzes in Tinkle, the popular children’s comic magazine. An emerging Indian icon, Mandira Bedi, will introduce him on Set Max, amid the flurry of other usual promotions like tie-ups with products and on-air promos.

In the comic book, Prabhakar will be a young boy growing up in Mumbai and dealing with local super villains. Given the fact that Indians like mythology and mythological heroes are given the status of gods who also have greater responsibility, says Marvel Comics, it thinks that Prabhakar will catch on like the original.

“Spiderman transcends all demographic, cultural and psychological barriers,” says Roy, explaining why he is “universal” and accepted so much in India. “He is basically a common man, also an underdog. He appeals to children as a comic book character, to teenagers as aspirational and the older audience likes him because of the fun and adventure.”

This is the first time that a Hindi song is being added to a Hollywood film, but such localisation has been done in other markets like Singapore and Hong Kong, says the Sony Music spokesperson. In India, Spider-man Part I had appeared all over a Borivli local and Godzilla was proclaimed to be taller than the Qutb Minar.