new delhi julian assange wants to do a che guevara and he has found an able ally in india the 43yearold wikileaks founder is all set to launch his range of apparel and accessories here in the hope that the countrys newfound fervour for online shopping will catapult him into a brand icon on the lines of the famous argentine revolutionary while ches visage can be seen on everything starting from tshirts and notebooks to helmets and watches thanks to his everlasting image as a countercultural symbol of rebellion assange is also hoping that he would be able to strike a similar chord in the heart of the worlds youngest democracy india is one of the countries where awareness about wikileaks is the highest and julian is excited about the proposition olafur vignir sigurvinsson an icelandbased wikileaks representative who had arranged a chartered plane for nsa whistleblower edward snowdens journey to moscow told toi over the telephone from norway he added that the monetization of the wikileaks brand would help rake in additional funds for the nonprofit online organization since it mainly relies on donations olafur will be in india over the weekend to talk to potential partners the market for merchandise in india is pegged at around rs 500 crore according to industry estimates but gaurav marya chairman with franchisee india the company that is facilitating brand wikileaks entry into the country is hopeful that the ecommerce boom will give a leg up to the domestic merchandising industry earlier it was very difficult to reach out to consumers through the brick and mortar route for instance by the time we could distribute spiderman movie merchandise to traditional retailers the craze for the movie would die but now its different with millions of people logging on to ecommerce sites every day he said marya pointed to a couple of merchandising successes look at being human by salman khan slowly but surely it has ballooned into a rs 100crore business without any major investment in marketing and advertising similarly during the general elections namo merchandise created a huge stir now sports will be big india has more than 1015 sports leagues from hockey and badminton to kabaddi and football these will all spawn a rush for merchandise apart from brick and mortar retailers wikileaks is looking for an exclusive online partner for distribution of its products like tshirts and sweatshirts sport taglines like leaks exposing injustice and enemy of the state the organization has already signed deals with agents from various countries including france germany austria switzerland spain and portugal we are also looking for partners in india who can manage the property and translate it into retail and eretail platforms olafur said however new delhibased brand expert santosh desai is skeptical about the brands potential as a marketing success wikileaks and assange are great brands but dont you think that trying to monetize them will defeat the whole ideology of what they stand for to be successful they will need