Mumbai-based Medha Srivastava wins Cosplay Championship Trophy at Comic Con India Cosplay Contest 2023

Medha Srivastava (in picture) cosplayed as Alexstrasza from World of Warcraft for the Comic Con India Cosplay Contest 2023. Photo Courtesy: Special Request

Mumbai-based professionally qualified artist Medha Srivastava has proven her excellence once again by winning the Cosplay Championship Trophy at Comic Con India Cosplay Contest 2023 this June.

The Indian Championships of Cosplay (ICC), is a celebration of all pop culture and costumes. It is a craftsmanship award show with a pre-judging session and a stage display. All entries have to represent a character or element from the pop culture realm. Competitors are then evaluated on the categories like crafting, stitching, armour, wig, makeup, performance and special effects. Comic Con is held in three major cities, Mumbai, Bangalore and Delhi. Every city has two finalists for the championship with a total of seven qualifiers who compete in the finals.

Srivastava is a professional illustrator and concept artist with a degree in animation and filmmaking. With a strong foundation in art and design and the influence of the gaming and concept art environments around her, cosplay was a natural attraction for her.

Her championship cosplay, Alexstrasza from World of Warcraft, was designed over a span of three months with an amalgamation of multiple art forms to induce prop making, stitching, wig styling, electronics, make-up, embroidery, and 3D. The hard work put into finishing the Alexstrasza cosplay refined her in the perfect way to showcase her skills, which incentivised her to become India's first female cosplayer to win an international award in cosplay at The International Dota2 event held in Shanghai.

Srivastava shares, "My cosplay journey started in 2016 at the Bangalore Comic-Con, where I cosplayed solely for the love of costumes and make-up. As a little girl, I loved dressing up as different characters, so I think cosplaying goes way back, even before I knew what cosplay was. With all the resources I had, I created my first costume and cosplayed the character to experience the spirit of Comic-Con and enjoyed it to the fullest. The intriguing experience led my younger self to dig deeper into the art form, and there has been no looking back ever since. Cosplay has evolved the paradigm of hobbies and helped me grow professionally in it. Netflix, Amazon, Hotstar, Cred, MTV, and some gaming companies have collaborated with me for my cosplay skills."

Additionally, she was also acknowledged as the Cosplay Queen by the legendary and Oscar winner AR Rahman who had spotted Srivastava's exceptional talent as an artist offering her the opportunities to be associated with his many projects. "Working with AR Rahman I am striving hard to live up to the global recognition and take my cosplay journey around the world", she adds.