Engaging India is a weekly online column analysing the issues, trends and forces behind the business and politics shaping India and its impact on the world, which appears on FT.com India, a dedicated online section on India. Engaging India appears every Thursday morning exclusively on FT.com India and is written by Jo Johnson, the Financial Times’ South Asia bureau chief; Amy Yee, New Delhi correspondent; Joe Leahy, Mumbai correspondent; and Farhan Bokhari, Islamabad correspondent.

Amid the recent hype about Bollywood taking on the world, the domestic Indian film industry has been quietly ambushed in its homeland by none other than a good old-fashioned American superhero, Spider-Man.