Enter the desi superhero

superhero

What: What would happen if Captain America was an Indian, would he be a pot-bellied, fafda-eating man from Ahmedabad? Or if Robin was an Indian, would he have an intellectual Bengali as his boyfriend? Delhi-based data visualiser (who says that he calls himself a graphic designer to dumb it down) Raj Kamal Aich, let his imagination run wild and re-imagined international superheroes (and two villians) as Indian. The results are ‘super' hilarious.

In pictures: Comic book superheroes in their desi avatars

Darth Vader's hot in India, really; Yoda meets Lalu Yadav; Women in India are superheroes too; Captain Ahmedabad is Aich's latest sketch in the series

How: It began with his photography project, Batman in India, where Aich photographed a Batman figurine across various locations he travelled to. "It's when I thought, what if superheroes were Indian. Batman can be a moustachioed, strong-headed man from the north, and Hulk from Tamil Nadu. I used people around as inspiration," Aich explains.

Robin has eyes for someone other than Batman

One such character is Wolverine, who is inspired by Aich's Bihari friend, "He is all muscular and strong, but when he goes home, he wants his mom to cook.

Flash, inspired by the Gandhi topi worn nowadays by Aam Aadmi Party followers

I wanted to show all Indian men are mamma's boys." Aich doesn't want to make any political statement.

Hulk turns into an angry Tamilian

Raj Kamal Aich

Except for the sketch of Robin, about which he says people should have the right to do what they want to, which is why he has shown Robin kissing a Bengali ‘intellectual', "You know how Bengalis are; we see ourselves as these intellectual people." Aich has now started a new series called Indian Superheroes, through which he wishes to give Indians their own superheroes (funny ones though).