We all have our hidden heroes somewhere inside. It may be someone with superpowers — like Superman or Batman — or someone from the dark side — like Loki or Harley Quinn. While most of us go through life with these fantasies locked up, there are some lucky ones who get to express their innermost desires, dressing up as characters of their choice. These are the cosplayers — people who role-play as fictional characters for an audience — and Kolkata finally has a couple of them to boast of.
What is Cosplay?
Cosplay or Costume Play is a hobby where the participants bring a fictional character to life with the right makeup and costumes. The idea behind cosplaying is to bring two dimensional art forms into 3D space. The characters mostly revolve around anime, video games, manga comics and are sometimes taken from storybooks and TV/web series.
Meet Rhea Chowdhury and Romi Mondol, two girls who’ve taken up this exciting, adventurous hobby in a city that’s a cosplaying backwater in every sense of the term. Cosplaying is an accepted sub-culture abroad, especially in countries with a huge fan following for comic books, like the US and Japan. In India, it’s become popular in cities that have regular Comic Cons, like Bangalore and Mumbai. But that’s not a hindrance for our two city girls. Rhea, aka Rheality Lapse, is a social media executive who’s been cosplaying since 2015, while Romi Mondol, an MBBS interning at SSKM hospital, just started a year back. Their stories will tell you more about them, us and the world of cosplaying.
Early days of Cosplaying
Romi, for instance, faced some resistance at home when she started dressing up as fictional characters. Her parents found her behaviour eccentric and couldn’t understand what the budding doctor was up to. “My dad is still dead against cosplaying as he thinks doctors are not supposed to do such things. My mom was also against it, but since she loves tailoring, she has started sewing my cosplay clothes,” says Romi. Cosplaying also allowed her to cross-dress. “From childhood, I liked to dress up as a boy. I was often taunted for this, but cosplaying helped me get rid of the inhibitions,” Romi adds.
Romi Mondol
Cosplay name: Romtz Wonder World
Profession: Doctor
Cosplaying since: 2016
Major characters covered: Usui Takumi, Misty (Pokemon), Erza Scarlet, Rei Ayanami, Harley Quinn, Lucy Heartfilia
Romi also thinks gender consciousness is dependent on how people address the issue. “I am a cross-cosplayer. I like to dress up as both male and female characters, though I prefer men. Cosplay allows me that, which is one of the major reasons why I fell in love with this activity.”
Rhea on the other hand has a supportive family. “I was always into Japanese anime and gaming. My parents knew that my hobbies and likings were offbeat. They have accepted me the way I am, but they get worried when I wear skimpy clothes. That’s mostly because of the horrifying news we see and read every day,” she says. Rhea started following cosplay in 2010 and before she knew it, she was regarded as a cosplayer. “I’ve been following the scene since 2010. But I started dressing up much later. I used to do that for fun. But when people started calling me a cosplayer, I thought, why not?”
The Kolkata scene
Rhea feels Kolkata can become one of the leading Indian cities for cosplaying, but can’t understand the reasons behind the ignorance. “Kolkata has a niche audience for gaming and cosplaying. But somehow big events like Comic Con India don’t come to our city,” she adds. She also points to the availability of cheap dress material, which is crucial to cosplaying. “The city offers you the best quality dress material at a much cheaper price compared to other Indian cities. This should interest cosplayers but I don’t know why people don’t participate.”
Rhea Chowdhury
Cosplay name: Rheality Lapse
Profession: Social Media Manager
Cosplaying since: 2015
Major characters covered: Lara Croft, Weiss Schnee, Harley Quinn, Juuzou Suzuya (Crossplay), Dark Lux, Diva (blood+)
Romi echoes Rhea in that the major cosplay events ignore Kolkata, which is why cosplaying is not growing here. “If events like Comic Con had come to our city, people would have got the opportunity to think about it. Now, most people don’t know what cosplay is. Many people I know have cosplayed once or twice but they didn’t continue because of the lack of events.”
Rhea has won many competitions held elsewhere in India. “I didn’t go for winning; I just went for cosplaying. The opportunities here are so few that participating itself is great fun for me. However, I won quite a few times and it’s always nice.” Romi is visiting Mumbai for a cosplay event later this year. “My profession doesn’t allow me enough time for cosplaying and since Kolkata doesn’t have much events, travelling to another city takes a lot of time. So I miss out on many big opportunities,” she adds.
Both agreed that since Kolkata is not exposed to the idea of public role-playing, people often behave in objectionable ways when they’re out in their costumes. Rhea speaks about a harrowing experience on Park Street, which is seen as the city’s party street. “I did a cosplay walk dressed as Harley Quinn (Suicide Squad) along with my friend who was dressed as the Joker. Stares are common and we cosplayers are prepared for that. But we had to stop the shoot as people crossed the line of decency and came too close. This is not the first time though; such behaviour is common in Kolkata,” she remembers.
Even Romi has faced similar problems. “Even if I ignore the innumerable stares and comments, sometimes people cross the limit. I have faced situations like that but I got out of them very confidently,” she says with a smile.
source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News> City News> Kolkata News / by Shrutanwita Chakraborty / TNN / October 22nd, 2017