Sharad Devarajan is the co-founder, Chief Executive Officer and Publisher of Virgin Comics LLC and Virgin Animation Pvt. Ltd, a set of companies he co-founded with Sir Richard Branson

Richard Branson

Sir Richard Charles Nicholas Branson is an English business magnate, best known for his Virgin Group of more than 400 companies....

 and the Virgin Group

Virgin Group

Virgin Group Limited is a British branded venture capital conglomerate organisation founded by business tycoon Richard Branson. The core business areas are travel, entertainment and lifestyle. Virgin Group's date of incorporation is listed as 1989 by Companies House, who class it as a holding...

, acclaimed author Deepak Chopra

Deepak Chopra

Deepak Chopra is an Indian medical doctor, public speaker, and writer on subjects such as spirituality, Ayurveda and mind-body medicine. Chopra began his career as an endocrinologist and later shifted his focus to alternative medicine. Chopra now runs his own medical center, with a focus on...

, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur

Shekhar Kapur

Shekhar Kapur is an Indian film director and producer. A critically acclaimed director, he rose to popularity with the movie Bandit Queen...

 and entrepreneurs Gautam Chopra and Suresh Seetharaman. Recently Mr. Devarajan led a management buyout of Virgin Comics and renamed the Company, Liquid Comics.

At Liquid Comics, Mr. Devarajan has built a studio of artists and writers to create a new wave of mythic character properties to be marketed worldwide in comics, games, animation and live-action films. Mr. Devarajan has also created entertainment products with acclaimed filmmakers, actors and musicians including John Woo

John Woo

John Woo Yu-Sen SBS is a Hong Kong-based film director and producer. Recognized for his stylised films of highly choreographed action sequences, Mexican standoffs, and use of slow-motion, Woo has directed several notable Hong Kong action films, among them, A Better Tomorrow, The Killer, Hard...

, Guy Ritchie

Guy Ritchie

Guy Stuart Ritchie is an English screenwriter and film maker who directed Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Revolver, RocknRolla and Sherlock Holmes.-Early life:...

, Dave Stewart

Dave Stewart (artist)

Dave Stewart is an artist who has worked as a colorist in the comics industry. He is known for his work at Dark Horse Comics, DC Comics and Marvel Comics, as well as colouring Tim Sale's art in Heroes.-Dark Horse Comics:...

, Duran Duran

Duran Duran

Duran Duran are an English band, formed in Birmingham in 1978. They were one of the most successful bands of the 1980s and a leading band in the MTV-driven "Second British Invasion" of the United States...

, Terry Gilliam

Terry Gilliam

Terrence Vance "Terry" Gilliam is an American-born British screenwriter, film director, animator, actor and member of the Monty Python comedy troupe. Gilliam is also known for directing several films, including Brazil , The Adventures of Baron Munchausen , The Fisher King , and 12 Monkeys...

, Edward Burns and Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage

Nicolas Cage is an American actor, producer and director, having appeared in over 60 films including Raising Arizona , The Rock , Face/Off , Gone in 60 Seconds , Adaptation , National Treasure , Ghost Rider , Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans , and...

.

Mr. Devarajan is also a Producer / Executive Producer on a number of theatrical live-action film projects based on Virgin’s comic properties including, The Sadhu; the Warner Bros. film adaptation of Gamekeeper with director Guy Ritchie and producer Joel Silver; Virulents with New Regency and The Leaves with Summit Entertainment. He is also a Creative Director on an MMO game being developed by Sony Online Entertainment based on the comic series, Ramayan 3392 A.D and a creator of Ani-Max and First Family, two television shows in development with FremantleMedia Enterprises.

Previously, Mr. Devarajan was the Co-Founder, President & CEO of Gotham Entertainment Group

Gotham Entertainment Group

Gotham Entertainment Group LLC is a US based company established in 1997 to establish a leadership position in the Indian comic magazine and children's book market...

, South Asia's leading comic book publisher. Mr. Devarajan was instrumental in securing and launching the South Asian publishing program for DC Comics

DC Comics

DC Comics, Inc. is one of the largest and most successful companies operating in the market for American comic books and related media. It is the publishing unit of DC Entertainment a company of Warner Bros. Entertainment, which itself is owned by Time Warner...

, Marvel Comics

Marvel Comics

Marvel Worldwide, Inc., commonly referred to as Marvel Comics and formerly Marvel Publishing, Inc. and Marvel Comics Group, is an American company that publishes comic books and related media...

, Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics

Dark Horse Comics is the largest independent American comic book and manga publisher.Dark Horse Comics was founded in 1986 by Mike Richardson in Milwaukie, Oregon, with the concept of establishing an ideal atmosphere for creative professionals. Richardson started out by opening his first comic book...

, Cartoon Network

Cartoon Network

Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....

 and Warner Bros.

Warner Bros.

Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc., also known as Warner Bros. Pictures or simply Warner Bros. , is an American producer of film and television entertainment.One of the major film studios, it is a subsidiary of Time Warner, with its headquarters in Burbank,...

 introducing the South Asian market to such notable comic magazines including Superman

Superman

Superman is a fictional comic book superhero appearing in publications by DC Comics, widely considered to be an American cultural icon. Created by American writer Jerry Siegel and Canadian-born American artist Joe Shuster in 1932 while both were living in Cleveland, Ohio, and sold to Detective...

, Spider-Man

Spider-Man

Spider-Man is a fictional Marvel Comics superhero. The character was created by writer-editor Stan Lee and writer-artist Steve Ditko. He first appeared in Amazing Fantasy #15...

, Batman

Batman

Batman is a fictional character created by the artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. A comic book superhero, Batman first appeared in Detective Comics #27 , and since then has appeared primarily in publications by DC Comics...

, Hulk

Hulk (comics)

The Hulk is a fictional character, a superhero in the . Created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in The Incredible Hulk #1 ....

, and X-Men

X-Men

The X-Men are a superhero team in the . They were created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, and first appeared in The X-Men #1...

. In 2004, Mr. Devarajan worked with Marvel Comics to reinvent the Spider-Man character as an Indian boy growing up in Mumbai. Unlike traditional translations of western comic magazines, the new series, Spider-Man: India

Spider-Man: India

Spider-Man: India is a comic book originally published in India by Gotham Entertainment Group in 2004, retelling the story of Marvel Comics' Spider-Man in an Indian setting. It ran for four issues, which were later also published in the United States in 2005 and collected into a trade paperback...

was heralded as the industry’s first “trans-creation” where instead of a literal translation for a foreign market, the character was "trans-created" into an Indian boy named Pavitr Prabhakar living in Mumbai.

External links

• NPR Radio Interview: a Spider-Man: India radio interview on NPR with one of the creators Sharad Devarajan
• Newsweek: a Newsweek International article on Spider-Man India
• New York Magazine: a New York Magazine article on Spider-Man India
• Weekly Standard: an essay from the Weekly Standard comparing Spider-Man India and Manifest Destiny
• BBC article on the Indian Spider-Man
• WSJ article on Virgin Comics
• Businessweek article on Virgin Comics
• Time Magazine article on Virgin Comics
• Fremantle dives in with Liquid Comics
• Liquid Comics website
• Liquid Comics Digital Comics
• Devarajan’s Business Educators Member Profile