Brands
Batman goes electric in India as Mahindra and Warner Bros. roll out caped crusader SUV
MUMBAI: Holy horsepower, Batman. India has just driven into comic-book history.
In a feat more Gotham than Gurgaon, Mahindra Electric Automobile Ltd and Warner Bros. Discovery have pulled off what few in the automotive or licensing world would dare attempt: the launch of the world’s first Batman-inspired electric SUV.
The BE.06 Batman Edition – unveiled at an invite-only spectacle at the Fairmont Mumbai – is less a motorcar and more a muscle-bound statement on wheels. Cloaked in midnight black, bristling with Gotham swagger, and infused with design nods to DC’s brooding vigilante, the car is being billed as a “collector’s dream” – though for now it will be available only to Indian buyers.
What makes the story remarkable is not just the branding but the breakneck speed. From concept sketch to drivable reality in just 45 days – the blink of a Bat-signal – the project has stunned both motoring and licensing circles. In an industry where even minor editions can crawl through months of approvals, this was, as one executive put it, “execution at bat-out-of-hell pace.”
Warner Bros. Discovery’s theatrical business in India vice-president and managing director Denzil Dias framed the launch as a landmark moment for both sides of the partnership. “From Gotham vibes to Mumbai drives — presenting the world’s first Batman-inspired electric SUV, born from a stunning collaboration between Mahindra Group and Warner Bros. Discovery India,” he said. “This isn’t just a car — it’s a statement. A symbol of India’s rising power on the global stage of innovation.”
He added: “A first for India. A milestone for Warner Bros. Discovery. A proud moment for Mahindra. And a statement to the world. Bravo, team — you didn’t just launch a car, you launched a collector’s dream.”
The applause has been shared widely. At Mahindra, design supremo Pratap Bose is credited with sketching the dream, while colleagues Preet Inder Singh Kahlon, Salil Pawar, Reeti Nageshri, Nalinikanth Gollagunta and Rajesh Jejurikar gave it wheels. On the Warner Bros. side, Anand Singh and his South Asia consumer products crew – Sanchayeeta Choudhury, Ushaa Rai, Kartikeya Ahluwalia and Gitanjli A. – worked in lockstep with DC’s global franchise chiefs Adam Bodenstein and Kevin Morris. Vikram Sharma, Warner Bros.’s Asia-Pacific consumer products boss, was hailed as the “North Star,” with India leadership – Arjun Nohwar, Dias himself, and Deepa Sridhar – offering ballast. The seed was planted, fittingly enough, by SuperCorp’s Ada Garg and Yashovardhan Ganeriwala.
For Warner Bros., the partnership burnishes DC’s global franchise in a market hungry for pop culture tie-ins. For Mahindra, it injects the glamour of Gotham into its electric-vehicle play. The symbolism is plain: India is not merely consuming global brands, but shaping them, turning fantasy into factory output at speed.
The car is limited in availability, but not in symbolism. Like Batman himself, it is equal parts myth and machine, equal parts statement and story. To borrow from Bruce Wayne’s world: sometimes the car doesn’t just get you from A to B – it makes you believe the impossible.
Brands
Rakesh Menon joins Paytm as avp – lending
Fintech product leader takes on new role after building digital lending, payments and credit products across fintech ecosystem
MUMBAI: Rakesh Menon has joined Paytm as assistant vice president – lending, taking on a new role focused on strengthening the company’s lending and credit products.
Prior to this, Menon worked at Profectus Capital Pvt Ltd as chief manager – payments based financing and digital lending.
At Profectus, he designed and launched digital credit products for merchants with variable cash flows, including overdraft-linked and revenue-share lending models. He led end-to-end LOS–LMS API integrations with payment partners and aggregators, enabling real-time underwriting, disbursal and repayment workflows.
He also worked on funnel optimisation initiatives using journey analytics, improving onboarding, KYC and disbursal conversion by 35 per cent. He developed ecosystem partnerships for transaction-data-based credit assessment and automated settlement systems, and collaborated with credit and data science teams to strengthen risk models and early delinquency detection.
Menon standardised partner onboarding and API frameworks, reducing go-live timelines by 40 per cent and improving digital scalability.
Before Profectus Capital, he worked at PayU as senior manager – presales lead – enterprise business from August 2022 to August 2023. He set up a national presales function for fintech and digital commerce clients, aligning solutions such as EMI, BNPL, BBPS and offer engines to merchant requirements.
He also helped improve conversion rates by around 15 per cent through merchant persona mapping, demo frameworks and structured sales playbooks, working closely with product and go-to-market teams.
From April 2019 to July 2022, Menon served as business unit head – SMB – direct acquisitions at Worldline, where he built the SMB online payments vertical from scratch. The business scaled to Rs 2,500 crore in annual transaction volume, growing at 45 per cent year-on-year.
During this period, he introduced paperless onboarding processes including eKYC and eSign, developed partner dashboards and CRM automation systems, and integrated platforms such as Shopify, WooCommerce and Tally to expand merchant adoption.
Across roles, Menon has worked across digital lending, payments and merchant financing, with experience in product development, ecosystem partnerships, API integrations and fintech-led growth strategies.
At Paytm, he will focus on scaling lending products and strengthening digital credit infrastructure within the company’s financial services ecosystem.
His appointment comes as fintech firms continue to expand their lending and embedded finance offerings in a competitive market.
