Gowrishanker did his first ever cosplay at the age of 25, but it wasn’t in his hometown Chennai. “It was at Bangalore Comic-Con,” he recalls, “On Day 1, I just checked it out. On Day 2, I made my costume and went as Wolverine. It’s an easy cosplay: all I had to make were the claws, and wear jeans and a shirt.”
Because it was a spontaneous idea, he needed it to be easy, explains the man behind Madras Comic Fest — an attempt to build a comic-lovers’ and cosplayers’ fraternity in the city — all set for their meet-up this weekend. He had to keep it simple because in cosplay, everything has to be made from scratch.
“For a Halloween costume or a fancy dress, you can just go to a shop and rent what you like. But in cosplay there are rules: your costume has to be made yourself, and you can’t use metal (not even for the weapons), just foam, wood and other non-hazardous material. Most importantly, you are supposed to wear the attitude of the character. As long as you are in costume, you are supposed to live the character,” says the 30-year-old, adding that because of all these factors, cosplayers feel a sense of ownership over their costume that most others don’t.
Like Gowrishanker, there are a number of ardent cosplayers in the city, but most travel to places like Mumbai and Bengaluru for the full cosplay experience. This is what spurred him to found Madras Comic Fest in 2016, with his friends John Wesley and Safar Rahman. A year and a half later, things are finally going steady for the outfit. Meetings are becoming more and more regular, and one-off cosplay workshops have given way to cosplayers’, film lovers’ and comic book lovers’ meetups. These comprise everything from staid discussions on rare comic books to all-out cosplaying events where Hulk, Thor and The Flash kick back to have a drink with a faceless, hooded Death.
“We still have a floating audience for every meeting. But we have collected a database of more than 200 enthusiasts and cosplayers,” says Gowrishanker. He is of the opinion that Chennai has plenty of scope in this arena, even though India Comic-Con, he says, feels otherwise.
“A few people had contacted India Comic-Con for an event in the city, but they said that it wasn’t feasible logistically,” says Gowrishanker, opining that this assumption probably stemmed due to the city’s relatively small cosplay fraternity. Comic-cons in Bengaluru and Mumbai see footfalls by the hundreds each day, while the biggest turnout at Gowrishanker’s humble events has been 75. “But I’m sure there are a lot of enthusiasts who travel to other cities every year and aren’t aware of us in Chennai. Plus, there are a lot of fans in closer towns and cities, who find Bengaluru too far or expensive to travel to, and would like an alternative in Chennai.”
For now, Madras Comic Fest is focussing on building their fraternity and meeting as often as they can. Their latest, scheduled at Backyard, Adyar this Sunday, is an Ant Man Comic collectors’ meet. “We’ll meet for about an hour, and then head to Sathyam to watch the film together,” he says.
For more details, contact Gowrishanker at 9176555527.
