Harley Quinn Wants To Flirt With You

Comic Con returned to Mumbai after a gap of three years and fans couldn't have been more excited.

People came in droves to attend the two-day mega event that took place at the Jio World Convention Centre at the Bandra Kurla Complex, north west Mumbai.

Rediff.com's Hitesh Harisinghani captures all the action as he sees characters come to life, fully engorging themselves in fandom.

'Introverted leggy lass', curriculum developer and part-time cosplayer Trisha Devadiga won the Mumbai Comic Con Cosplay contest in the Comic category. She also bagged the Grand Prize of The Cosplay Contest.

Trisha didn't attend Day 1 of the event as she was busy working on her costume. She almost gave up and didn't want to participate this year, but as they as say, all is well that ends well.

Cosplay is an art form, and the artists try and mimic every tiny detail of their favourite characters and devote a lot of attention to planning the costume. Trisha spent ₹7,000 on her costume, which took three months to complete.

But the effort paid off when it took her less than 30 minutes to get dressed. "I created the costume in such a way that it would be easy to wear it."

"I believe in my craft and was confident about winning in the comic category. It's my favourite category and I have won it before as well (in 2019)."

Winning the Grand Prize was the cherry on the icing for her. "With around 400 cosplayers participating in the competition this year, I had not expected it."

A professor, Bareen Aowte chose to go with the character of Bloom from Fate: The Winx Saga.

"This is my first Comic Con," she says. "I used to watch the cartoon when I was 11-12.Socha pehli baar kar rahi hoon, toh aache se kar leti hoon (as I was doing it for the first time, I decided to do a good job)."

Barleen's costume took 45 days to take shape. "Wings banane mein bahut mehnat lagi hai (it took a lot of effort for me to make the wings). The wings cost me ₹300, the outfit, ₹800, and I ended up spending ₹1,000 on the shoes."

Data analyst Pooja Malhotra serves up a dramatic moment as Harley Quinn. The outfit was rustled up in less than a week and cost her around ₹2,000.

Why Harley Quinn? "Her character is something I live by, and I love her craziness."

 

This Knight doesn't have a shining armour! Say hello to production coordinator Saksham who dressed in white from head-to-toe to resemble Mr Knight from the series Moon Knight.

 

Optician Rajesh Sharma's Iron Man character needs no introduction. He travelled 700 km from Yavatmal to Mumbai to attend Comic Con.

 

Mahira Thakur, 9, dressed as Chainsaw Man.

The Pune resident has been cosplaying since she was three and was accompanied to the event by her dad, who also created her costume with some help from Pooja Malhotra.

 

Bibbari aka Bibtokki, a psychology student, dressed as Pharsa from the Mobile Legends Bang Bang game. It took her two months and ₹5,000 to make the costume.

 

Rara as Aeolian from the web comic Ghost Blade in an outfit that cost her ₹15,000.

 

Four-and-a-half-year-old Kian was the cutest Superman spotted at Comic Con.

 

Law student Shannelle's Tengen Uzui costume was ready in three days.

 

IT engineer Durgesh Pawar dressed as Ichigo Kurosaki from Bleach.

 

You can call Rijay Roy Choudhary's Angemon costume a work of art. A teacher, he worked on his costume for almost a year.

Feature presentation: Ashish Narsale/Rediff.com