the word cosplay is a portmanteau of costume and play referring to the art of dressing up and pretending to be popular fictional characters usually from science fiction comics or anime in the west where cosplay is a multimillion dollar industry cosplayers are no less than celebs indian cosplayers may not have attained that star status yet but many of them are slowly turning to it fulltime now professional cosplayers although few are a quickly growing tribe in the country delhi particularly is home to several individuals who cosplay fulltime or in a semipro setting earning good money from it round the year we take a look at the pros of the field from the cityfrom hobby to source of incomefor most cosplayers the foray into the field began as a hobby or chance encounter that eventually grew into something more substantial over the years twentythree year akanksha sachan proudly claims to be one of the first cosplayers in the country i started in 2010 when there were no conventions in india in fact i didnt even know what i was doing was called cosplay she says adding i was a fashion design student at nift as well as an anime buff i combined the two and designed costumes of some of my favourite characters it was later when i researched that i realized that what i was doing was already a global phenomenon today akanksha travels around the country participating in various cosplay events and has even worked in the promotional campaign of captain america civil war where she cosplayed as captain america for a cinema hall chainfor 26yearold graphic designer gaurav thakur cosplay happened due to his urge to create a spiderman costume he says i am a big spiderman fan and when comic cons began in india i wanted to go as spiderman the first costume i made in 2013 was ridiculed after which i decided to learn how to make a proper costume i ended up winning the competition the next year which helped me get a couple of gigs and workshops in delhi how important cosplay is to gaurav becomes evident when he tells you that he rescheduled his december 2015 wedding as it was coinciding with the delhi comic contop cosplayers earn up to rs 25000 per eventcosplayers say that even though the money they get is way less than what some of their western counterparts make it is quite healthy cosplayers are usually hired by companies mostly gaming companies or film studios to dress up as their characters at big events or launches of their next product events like comic book launches film promotions and game launches are where these cosplayers make the bulk of their money in addition senior cosplayers are also invited to judge cosplay competitions across india and sometimes abroad as well aorin shariyari a 24yearold delhibased cosplayer says the money depends on how famous a cosplayer is which is determined by their social media followers