 In this country, if I step out wearing a wig, wearing beard costumes, and people don't look at me or judge me, that would be the best day of the life. Yes. Now that is possible in some parts of Delhi and other cities where people won't even bat an eyelid, but right there lies the struggle cosplayers face to assert that this is an art form and not fancy dressing. In fact, a Kang Shah Sachan who you just saw had a tough time convincing her parents of that. She and Oran Shahiri take you into a world where their hobby has become their full-time occupation. The cloud nine of happiness, it happens when the execution of the costume. Fine, I was working for four, five months. The entire year I was spending my every day, one hour every day on that costume and now it's brought to life. Probably you'll find me hiding in a corner, but in cosplay, I'm out there, I'm the butterfly, I'm running everywhere, I want people to talk to me, you're not talking to me, why aren't you talking to me, I'll come and talk to you. So when I'm in cosplay, I have the liberty of not being Oran Shahiri. I have the liberty of not being the good girl, you know, no conceal, don't let it go sort of things. I can do because I have a mask on, even though it's not a literal mask, my face is visible. I have this entire new costume, a new skin on me. And everything I do, I can be like, that wasn't me, it was cosplay. Watch a lot of anime, I am a big gaming and video games, a big comic freak and mostly it's a Japanese anime. So that plays a lot of role in being a character. How do I display my art form in a country where people don't know what it is? So social media is a very good platform for me to show my kind of art. So being an online personality, it kind of helps to bring out the characters into life because more people will come and they'll see what my art form is, what it represents. Rather than going to places offline in events, more people are catching attention towards my art. Well, the things I was cutting when I was young wasn't fabric or foam, so no, it didn't start there because that time I wasn't creating anything when I was cutting when I was young. It was more of a destructive force, but now it has turned table entirely. So the cutting went from flesh and skin to fabric and foam and sometimes weird material like the plastic bottle or you won't imagine, I have made costumes out of curtains. I think natural in it, so like even sometimes when I feel annoyed, I'm like, screw this, I want to look pretty. I'll go to the bathroom, put some makeup on and wig. I love my wigs. I particularly am not a big fan of my own hair, so I'll just tie it up, put on my wig and the moment I put the wig on, I just feel a little more like ta-da. In comic conventions, when I go, people, especially men, they think like, okay fine, we are cosplaying so they can treat us whatever the way they want. I don't want to be treated like a freak. I want to be treated as an artist. If I go out wearing wigs, wearing costumes, I should be just a regular person. In Japan, people are so mindful, like if you're in cosplay, it's okay, please don't, they feel like I'm going to hit them and that's not the case. The quality will improve when only the people who appreciate and understand the culture, they are coming. That, so I have seen improvement earlier, I've seen guys get molested at Comic-Con and that's sad, but that's the quality, right, feminism. There are other cosplayers across the country as well. Not all are doing it full-time, but definitely putting in effort, sometimes months of effort, into a costume. It does have a regular space in India now as well, with regular gaming and comic convention events where these people can take part. Social platforms to put up their work also play a big role. And no, it doesn't have a limited time span. As Akansha told me, she's seen cosplayers well into their later years, coming out and getting into character. Yes, it does let you be the self you can't in a conflicted society.