Before Spider-Man: No Way Home, most Spider-Man films in India had either failed to cross Rs 100 crore or only just crossed the mark.
No Way Home changed the trajectory, becoming a blockbuster despite releasing during the pandemic and grossing around Rs 275 crore in India.
The objective was not to change Spider-Man but to place him inside cultural contexts that Indian audiences already understand.
After Kantara, Shetty had not done brand work, making his appearance in a Spider-Man campaign unexpected.
"Nobody would expect Rishab Shetty to be part of a Spider-Man campaign," says Kansara.
At a metro station, on a cricket broadcast, across a Mumbai skyline, on a double-decker bus and through the social feeds of millions of consumers, Spider-Man was difficult to miss in the months leading up to Spider-Man: Brand New Day.
For Sony Pictures India, that omnipresence was the result of a deliberate strategy to make one of Hollywood's most recognisable entertainment properties feel less like a global franchise being marketed in India and more like a cultural property that belonged to Indian audiences.
The approach appears to have paid off. Spider-Man: Brand New Day has crossed Rs 500 crore in India in three weeks, or roughly $50 million, making it the biggest Hollywood film to release in the country. The film has already earned over $2 billion worldwide. India’s contribution is among the top 5 international territories (excluding North America). Typically films of this scale contribute 1.5-2% to the global box office.
According to Jimit Kansara, director of marketing, Sony Pictures Releasing International, India, the campaign was never simply about exploiting the awareness that comes with the Spider-Man name. Its two "north stars", he says, were culture and community.
"For theatrical films, the ultimate outcome you're looking for is footfalls. How you get there is different for every film," says Kansara. With Spider-Man, the task was to build on the community created by the franchise while culturally infusing the IP into India.
Jimit Kansara, Director-Marketing, Sony Pictures Releasing International, India
Beyond the Spider-Man halo
The assumption that a globally popular franchise can sell itself is tempting, but Sony's experience suggested otherwise.
Before Spider-Man: No Way Home, most Spider-Man films in India had either failed to cross Rs 100 crore or only just crossed the mark. No Way Home changed the trajectory, becoming a blockbuster despite releasing during the pandemic and grossing around Rs 275 crore in India.
That success, however, made the marketing challenge more interesting rather than less important.
"The IP is incredibly strong, but awareness alone doesn't necessarily get people into theatres," says Kansara.
The answer was to sustain excitement over a campaign that began roughly four to five months before release, when the first trailer dropped. Unlike most consumer products, a theatrical release has to maintain momentum for months before ultimately converting that awareness into an opening weekend.
That meant building a phased campaign with different tools and ideas coming into play at different points. "Once we saw that a certain level of box office was possible, the question became how to multiply it?" he says.
The task has become harder because audiences are no longer passive recipients of marketing. Fans can instantly react to, critique and amplify a campaign.
"They're not just critical; they're demanding, and their standards are extremely high," says Kansara. "Audiences are more aware, they have a voice, and they have platforms to express it directly to you."
Making a global IP feel Indian
The most visible expression of Sony's strategy was localisation.
The campaign brought in cricketers KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav, actor-director Rishab Shetty, Indian music creators and a host of regional touchpoints. The objective was not to change Spider-Man but to place him inside cultural contexts that Indian audiences already understand.
"Spider-Man is a global IP, but how do we make it feel relevant to the Indian audience?" says Kansara. "We wanted to bring in an Indian sensibility while staying true to the character."
That meant cricket and music were not merely media vehicles. They became cultural entry points.
Kansara says there was no copy-paste strategy across markets. Sony's India team is involved in the marketing strategy from the beginning, while global assets are subsequently adapted for local use. Even the opening of bookings was localised, with Spider-Man imagery accompanied by messaging in languages including Bengali and Malayalam.
The logic is particularly important for a franchise whose audience extends well beyond India's metros. Close to 40% of the film's revenue comes from dubbed-language markets, including Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.
"You can't simply copy-paste an English campaign," he says.
The surprise factor
Celebrity partnerships were therefore selected less as a conventional star endorsement exercise and more for their ability to create cultural surprise.
Rishab Shetty was one such example. After Kantara, Shetty had not done brand work, making his appearance in a Spider-Man campaign unexpected.
"Nobody would expect Rishab Shetty to be part of a Spider-Man campaign," says Kansara.
The choices were also subject to more practical considerations such as budgets, availability and creative fit. KL Rahul and Suryakumar Yadav, for instance, were woven into what the team internally called the Bhool Gaye campaign because the idea naturally worked with them.
The same thinking extended to sport more broadly. Cricket became one of the campaign's major touchpoints because, as Kansara puts it, these are the cultural associations that "move the needle" in India.
Music as a cultural bridge
Music provided another way to regionalise the campaign.
Rather than create one universal promotional track, Sony developed different musical expressions for different audiences. In the North, the strategy was built around heartbreak, reflecting Peter Parker's emotional vulnerability. In the South, the tone was celebratory, designed to get audiences dancing with Spider-Man.
The Hindi track was intended to feel like an extension of the character's story rather than a promotional song pasted onto it. In the South, the studio worked with GV Prakash and choreographer Sandy Master to create a more celebratory expression.
The two songs have together generated over 48 million views on official channels, excluding organic reels and other audience-created content, according to Kansara.
The response also illustrates what Sony was trying to achieve: not simply local relevance, but a sense of ownership. "We wanted Indians to feel that Spider-Man belongs to them," says Kansara.
Creating moments rather than buying more media
The strategy extended beyond conventional media.
Sony deployed metro wraps, bus takeovers and an anamorphic CGI billboard in Mumbai that made Spider-Man appear to be interacting with the city itself. The latter became one of the campaign's biggest social moments, with the reel approaching 100 million views, according to Kansara.
For the studio, the thinking behind such activations was less about chasing virality and more about creating something people would want to photograph and share.
"The idea is to create something that people see and instinctively want to photograph and share," says Kansara.
The approach reflects a broader challenge for entertainment marketers: consumers are surrounded by competing films, streaming platforms and brands, making incremental media spends less likely to create a memorable impression.
Sony therefore opted for calculated risks.
"We're in the business of entertainment. We're not saving lives; we're here to have some fun," says Kansara. "We want audiences to have fun with the campaign too."
From media partners to the fan community
Sony also tried to make the campaign a two-way relationship with fans.
The studio uses social listening to understand not just what audiences are saying but why they are saying it. That feedback has increasingly influenced how it engages fandoms.
For Spider-Man, that translated into relatively small gestures, including a collectible ticket for early Premium Large Format (PLF) bookings and a limited-edition pin badge. Such "gifts with purchase", Kansara says, are a way of acknowledging the audience's enthusiasm.
That relationship is particularly important for a franchise with multiple generations of fans. The response to Tom Holland's visit to India offered another reminder of the character's reach. For younger audiences, Holland is effectively Spider-Man, while older audiences have their own associations with the character through Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield.
Sony also had to account for a potentially more challenging demographic: children.
The film's tone is more mature than the previous three Spider-Man movies. The studio therefore used mall activations, kids' platforms such as Sony YAY!, and family-oriented shows, including India's Best Dancer and Taarak Mehta Ka Ooltah Chashmah, to keep the character relevant to younger audiences.
The underlying proposition is simple enough: Spider-Man can transcend age groups.
"Everyone from eight to 80 can love Spider-Man," says Kansara.
Building a 360-degree Spider-Man
Brand partnerships added another layer to the campaign. Sony worked with close to 15 partners, including BMW, McDonald's, Ocean Beverages, ITC Sunfeast and Pulse.
The value, according to Kansara, was not just additional reach. Partnerships created a sense of scale and allowed Spider-Man to appear in environments where Sony may not have otherwise spent media money.
BMW brought a premium association; McDonald's offered in-store reach. At the peak of the campaign, the objective was to make Spider-Man difficult to escape.
"Everyone is talking about Spider-Man, and the film almost starts choosing you rather than you choosing the film," says Kansara.
