Archie, Betty, Veronica and the rest of the rest of the Riverdale gang are taking a trip to India.  Kids Media India, which owns Spacetoon Kids TV channel, has bought the rights for the licensing, merchandising and promotion of Archie Comics in India.

This brings Archie comics and licensed items like games, puzzles and more to the Mumbai for sale.  You can expect to see clothes, shoes, back-to-school items, handbags, sunglasses, mugs and make-up, and so much more bearing the likeness of the Archie gang to be hitting store shelves.

The CEO of Kids Media India, Rajiv Sangari, says there are potentially 800 categories of Archie merchandise that could be sold as a result of the deal.  Kids Media India will give out licenses to Indian companies to either import or produce the merchandise.  From Sangari:

We have already given the rights to one company for Archie puzzles and games and we intend to import or produce Archie stationery ourselves.  We are also looking at bringing out an Archie magazine here.  There are a couple of players in India who are keen to take up the license for that.  It would be about the characters’ fashion and style.

Western and American culture have been an area of fascination with Indian teenagers.  And even though lives are different, that’s part of the appeal.  One million Archie comics are sold in India every year and while there is no Hindi version there are discussions to translate the comics into regional dialects.