Comi Con fans flocking into the arena as cosplayers.
After a gap of four years, Comic Con, a pop culture extravaganza, returned to Hyderabad with a bang during the Republic Day long weekend. The Hyderabadi comic and pop culture fans thronged the Hitex Exhibition Centre with much enthusiasm on Saturday, which marked the day one of the two-day convention.
The line-up of stalls and events charted across two days witnessed fans flocking into the arena as cosplayers. Since 11 a.m. on Saturday, cosplayers were seen walking around the arena, posing for selfies with the attendees and also engaging with YouTubers and social media influencers present at the venue. The hall with the comic convention had 46 stalls of merchandise, comics, collectibles, comic-themed tee shirts, posters and much more. Meanwhile, the hall adjacent to the comics convention had the gaming arena with a platform for Sony’s Playstation, Alienware and AMD.
The convention on Saturday had 17 Indian artists and two international artists showcasing their work. Overall the arena had four experience zones for the public with simulations from different pop culture themes. Jhanvi, cosplaying as Mavis from Hotel Transylvania, is an art teacher who encouraged and brought seven of her students to the convention. “I have been cosplaying since my intermediate days and I wanted to encourage my students as well. I came with a colleague, who is cosplaying as Mirabel from Encanto. Three of my students chose to be different versions of Spiderman, while others came as Mulan, Raya, another Mirabel and Maleficent. Good to have the event back after a gap of ,” she said.
Shiv, cosplaying as the killer Mike Meyers from the Halloween movie franchise, said that it was weird to see people asking him to ‘slash them’. “I cosplayed seven years ago as a boy. Today I am here with my wife. It is good to be back and it’s interesting to see youngsters keeping up with the change in pop culture,” he said.
Aditya and Yashmita came as characters from the anime, Jujutsu Kaisen. Yashmita, a resident of Bengaluru who cosplayed there in November, 2023, said that the Hyderabad crowd is way better. Aditya, who cosplayed for the first time, said, “Posing for selfies with fans is a welcome hassle”
A professional cosplayer from Bengaluru, Prerna alias Twinkle, came as Cinderella. “This is to satisfy my inner child. I went to the one in Bengaluru last year but the Hyderabad fans are something else! Good to see such a diverse crowd here,” she said.
The event also had a special session by Crunchyroll, performances by local and global artists like Rico Renzi, Special Performance by Proximity Crew, Geek Fruit, Panther and Binge-O’Clock Live with stand-up comedians Rohan Joshi and Sahil Shah. The second day will witness a line-up of exciting book launches, including the Launch of ACK’s Deva with actor Rana Daggubati, a special session with artist Danesh Mohiuddin, First Look of Telugu Feature Film – Gaami, A music and art fusion performance by Afsar Syed & Mooz One and special performances by M.C. Altaf and comedian Aakash Gupta.
