As it often happens in business, Windlass has an aggressive competitor in the wings (one that manufactures khukris, too). Lord of Battles, founded by Capt Saurabh Mahajan in 2005, with its factory in Saharanpur and a sampling unit in Dehradun, is one. “A lady from Australia gave me my first contract for chain mail for $1,500,” says Mahajan, a medieval history buff. Since then, the company has been associated with the GoT franchise for two seasons, besides doing projects like The Hobbit and TV shows like Merlin and Bastard Executioner. Casting a wide net, it has also worked on the Russian film Kolovrat and with the Royal Shakespeare Company for theatre productions. So far, orders for big budget productions have been fickle: “Fifteen, one, sometimes even a hundred,” says Mahajan. Material is sourced from across India, especially Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. By his business strategy, theatre productions are economically viable and “their orders are small but it as good a market as the movies”. Mahajan says that orders typically range from $10,000 for a play to $200,000 for a movie. Besides props and merchandise, Lord of Battles manufactures souvenirs too, but as an “export-oriented” line. “No one will buy the products in India,” says Mahajan, the price for a scaled-down knight’s armour replica being 200 euros.