By Deepali Junjappa

This weekend, Bengaluru hosted it’s edition of Comic Con 2017. Comic Con is basically a global “pop culture celebration”, and is an event that’s held yearly in various cities around the world to bring together comic and culture enthusiasts. It’s also the host of some competitive cosplaying. Cosplay is when fans dress up as comic, movie or television characters, and are judged based on how closely their costumes resemble the character.

Bengaluru ladies were happy to rise to the challenge. Here are some of our favourite ladies from Bengaluru Comic Con 2017.

Sweety Datta as Poison Ivy: 

Sweety says she’s a huge fan of Poison Ivy because Poison Ivy rises from the earth and is, in a way, Mother Earth herself. Sweety’s an education counsellor and feels she identifies with the character. This is her first time at Comic Con but she says it’s certainly not the last.

Preeti Anand as Katana, Anand as Captain America

Preeti is a homemaker and loves Katana the warrior superheroine from DC comics. She says she likes wild, fun, fearless characters, samurai female warriors and also, Katana’s tragic backstory (that includes the death of her husband whose soul gets trapped in her blade). She’s also mother to 8-year-old Anand, who’s totally getting a head-start on cosplaying thanks to his mum. 

Nandhene M as Tsunade

Nandhene is a software engineer. She says she identifies with the Naruto character Tsunade because of her strong and assertive personality, and also her physique. She sympathises with Tsunade’s on-screen trials and tribulations, mentioning that she’s developed strong emotions for her character’s quirks, like her aversion to the sight of blood after the death of several loved ones.

Nikkali as Hemei 

Nikkali is a Bachelor of Business Administration student and a part-time model. At Comic Con, she played the character of Hemei from Loss 4A2. She loves to cosplay this character because she’s enthusiastic, fearless and kind. She credits watching anime with her younger brother Juno as the inspiration for her love of cosplay. 

Farhana Sheikh as Harley Quinn

Farhana Sheikh is a Bachelor of Business Administration student and says she loves Harley Quinn because she’s hot, sexy and occasionally terrifying.