VFX The Year that 2016 has been for the cosplay industry in India -

The Year that 2016 has been for the cosplay industry in India

I’ve been cosplaying for four years now. Professionally, I work full-time as a game designer for Hike Messenger app, and I’ve been operating out of Bangalore. Both video games and cosplay are very close to my heart, so below you’ll find my thoughts on how the cosplay scene in India has grown since the last year. For more about myself, you can check out the older interview.

2016 is definitely a step above from the cosplaying in previous years. Not just in terms of quality of costumes and attention to detail, but as well the number of cosplayers, the number of emerging cities which are having their own small-scale events, and the general awareness in cosplay thanks in part to the active community.

 Cosplayers of Novaplay's Supernova 2016.
Cosplayers of Novaplay’s Supernova 2016.

The year witnessed not just an improvements in terms of quality of Cosplay but also in the number of events revolving around Cosplay. This year saw events in Chennai and Kolkata, as well as even more workshops that weren’t just conducted by Comic Con India. One of the biggest highlights of this year was the World Cosplay Summit India 2016 and 2017 Finals, in both Mumbai and Mizoram respectively. Another huge event highlight was the ESL (E-Sports League) Cosplay Competitions, where several winners would have the opportunity to represent India for ESL’s major event in Malaysia.

Cosplay
Delhi Comic Con 2015 Grand Prizer winner Abhishek Chaudhary with international cosplayer Yaya Han

In terms of exposure to cosplayers when compared to our international counterparts, it’s slowly but surely getting there. For example, Abhishek Chaudhary (Delhi Comic Con 2015 Grand Prize winner) earned the opportunity to meet international cosplayer Yaya Han at the Beijing Comic Con 2016 in June. Meanwhile, noteworthy cosplay devoted fan pages like The Art of Cosplay have been featuring Indian cosplayers as well. That’s also not to mention Japanese WCS cosplay representatives Akira Konomi-san and SKYRE were specifically flown down, to judge the finals and decide who will be representing India in Japan’s grand finale event. As I have worked with Konomi-san personally, she was genuinely excited with the kind of effort and growth that we’ve been experiencing.

As for India itself, the cosplay community is very close to each other. I generally don’t think there isn’t anyone who doesn’t know someone, and that’s usually based on the sort of impact their cosplay brings to all these events like Comic Con India.

If you ask me if the prospects of doing professional cosplay have increased; then my answer would be a definitive yes. Specifically, more Hollywood movie launches have been hiring professional cosplayers to help promote a film’s release. For example, Cosplay League India had a group cosplay done for a Civil War movie launch in Chennai. Niha Novacaine was hired by G2A to cosplay for the launch of the Warcraft movie in Mumbai, and so on.

Even newer events have been actively hiring cosplayers, bringing them as special guests for fans or to help host. For example, my friends Dancing Kitteh was the cosplay host for the cosplay contest at Indian eSports Championship in Mumbai, and Rheality Lapse was hired as the official judge.

Cosplay
Coming to the inevitable question of what’s the future of this industry. If I had to hazard a guess, cosplay specific events would continue being a highlight at competitive gaming events such as ESL, DewArena and ROG Masters. At the same time, I have a feeling that we will see one more major city to receive an official Comic Con India event, if not something like Comic Con Express in Pune, then perhaps a cosplay workshop like the one that was conducted in Jaipur by my friend Ankit Singh.

World Cosplay Summit finalists
World Cosplay Summit Indian 2016 finalists in Mumbai, with special guests Tokumaru Oguri (President of World Cosplay Summit Co. Ltd) and Akira Konomi (former WCS Japan winner).

Cosplay workshops are the only thing I’m not sure if we’ll continue to see more of. It really depends on the community, and their active participation. Thankfully, online resources like the Indian Cosplay Community and experienced costume/prop makers will continue contributing.

Finally, I have a good feeling that 2017 will be even stronger than previous years in cosplay. Not necessarily in terms of costume quality, but in the sheer number of people who will be excited to cosplay for the first time. And with the bevy of new things to look forward to (new movies, new game releases, continuation of popular TV and anime shows, etc), newcomers and long-time veterans will have plenty to draw inspiration from.

(These are purely personal views of cosplayer, Vijay Sinha and AnimationXpress.com does not necessarily subscribe to these views)

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