Am I crazy or is Indian representation in Marvel literally nonexistent?
This has been bothering me forever. Marvel's doing great with representation - Black Panther, Shang-Chi, Ms. Marvel - but where is India? We're literally 17.78% of the world's population (1.5 billion people) and we have... nothing?
"But Kamala Khan exists!"
She's Pakistani-American and Muslim. Amazing representation for those communities, but that's not Indian/Hindu culture (80% of India). They're different cultures.
"What about Kingo in Eternals?"
Kumail Nanjiani is Pakistani, not Indian. And Kingo was an immortal alien who just happened to hide out in India as a Bollywood star - it wasn't about Indian culture or identity, just set dressing. Plus Eternals flopped and none of those characters are coming back.
"What about Spider-Man India?"
Pavitr Prabhakar was fantastic and I teared up seeing him, but he had 15-20 minutes of screen time as a supporting character. No standalone film, no series, just a great cameo.
So the actual comparison:
- Black Panther: Full movie, $1.3B+ box office
- Shang-Chi: Full movie exploring Chinese/Asian-American identity
- Ms. Marvel: Entire Disney+ series
- **India**: Pakistani actor playing an alien pretending to be Indian in a flopped movie + animated supporting character
India has Bollywood, massive box office market, incredibly rich mythology (Hindu mythology would be INSANE for superhero content), and we're 18% of humanity. But we get nothing.
I'm not diminishing other groups' representation - they deserved it. I'm just asking why India is completely invisible when we're literally 1 in 5 people on Earth.
"But Kamala Khan exists!"
She's Pakistani-American and Muslim. Amazing representation for those communities, but that's not Indian/Hindu culture (80% of India). They're different cultures.
"What about Kingo in Eternals?"
Kumail Nanjiani is Pakistani, not Indian. And Kingo was an immortal alien who just happened to hide out in India as a Bollywood star - it wasn't about Indian culture or identity, just set dressing. Plus Eternals flopped and none of those characters are coming back.
"What about Spider-Man India?"
Pavitr Prabhakar was fantastic and I teared up seeing him, but he had 15-20 minutes of screen time as a supporting character. No standalone film, no series, just a great cameo.
So the actual comparison:
- Black Panther: Full movie, $1.3B+ box office
- Shang-Chi: Full movie exploring Chinese/Asian-American identity
- Ms. Marvel: Entire Disney+ series
- **India**: Pakistani actor playing an alien pretending to be Indian in a flopped movie + animated supporting character
India has Bollywood, massive box office market, incredibly rich mythology (Hindu mythology would be INSANE for superhero content), and we're 18% of humanity. But we get nothing.
I'm not diminishing other groups' representation - they deserved it. I'm just asking why India is completely invisible when we're literally 1 in 5 people on Earth.
Commentaires
Just be happy you get something
“Just be happy you get something” - No. Representation and especially “good” representation matters.
Do you believe Thor could practically be portrayed by an Indian man then because his character is an Asgardian and speaks with a British accent?
Obviously not. Use your critical thinking skills.
I think this is an issue with marvel comics writ large, and not much marvel studios can do about it.
Not sure why you got hate. Probably because India doesn't make as much money for Marvel as other major markets
People who support roles like this are the same ones who defend Apu in the Simpsons and Raj in the Big Bang Theory.
You either get one of these racist caricatures or some half-cooked throwaway role like Kingo.
That man is a treasure
Does bollywood movies have any main character other than Indian?
\> Shang-Chi: Full movie exploring **Chinese**/Asian-American identity
You're equating the Chinese part to the people from China or other countries like Taiwan/Hong Kong etc? Or the Chinese diaspora worldwide?
\>I**ndia**: Pakistani actor playing an alien pretending to be Indian in a **flopped movie** \+ animated supporting character
F\*\*k of with that nonsense. What does the box-office of the movie has to do with it? Well, Across the spider-verse was a big success. And animated supporting character - well where are the animated supporting characters for other nationalities/culture??
At the end of the day, you need to look to the comics and voice a want for an Indian hero to that side as the MCU has very little in the way of original characters.
Yes there is a difference between Pakistani and Indian, but in the grand scale, it is seen as one bigger „Ethnicity“.
But you could look up possible Indian Marvel characters and bring awareness to them. Every now and then, they do pick up fan requests.
I also agree that the current representation sucks because neither actors or characters are actually Indian in any form and their roles in the MCU are minor at best and will ultimately be throwaways as it stands.
I hope that changes but don’t be surprised at the level of vitriol and backlash that will be thrown at it. Black Panther was a major success but was hated on by so many people and so was Shang Chi.
Anything involving positive minority male representation especially those that Hollywood deems “others” like Asian/Indian/etc. always has an uphill battle to face.
The same people crying in these comments about Indians wanting representation are the same ones who were throwing tantrums when Black Panther and Shang Chi came out.
It’s just a whataboutism I agree, Americans having representation in the various sections of Indian cinema wouldn’t affect Indian representation in Hollywood.
For whatever reason, as soon as social media sees the word “Indian” they start frothing at the mouth at the idea of someone wanting better for themselves in any form.
If you want any real opinions or conversation you’re better off positing in r/ABCDesis or similar. Not many spaces for Indian descent folks to discuss their issues without the kind of crap you see here and social media in general.
Doesn’t matter if you’re born and raised here, been here 30+ years, recently immigrated, or even in India still.
Their brain will shut off as soon as you’ve been placed into their “others” bucket.
The same way all whites are considered school shooters and alt-right extremists?
Oh wait, we only apply those generalizations to people of color and not white people.
Think about how stupid that sounds, no one would say “some black people are racists to whites therefore it’s okay to be racist towards black people”
Lol untrue on so many counts
The caste system is colorist to a degree but it is not based solely in color and frankly is nothing like Jim Crow and Apartheid where white people enforced it against one specific race they deemed lower.
Secondly the caste system has existed for a much longer time than either of those systems ever did.
Thirdly what the actual hell does that have to do with any of this topic?
“The caste system exists and Indians discriminate against Indians therefore it’s okay for us to hate on them!”
Every talking point here is so comically copied from the Reddit notebook of why racism against Indians is okay lmao