Cosplay: Chell
NASSCOM initially approached Tanya to cosplay for the Game Developer Conference 2014, Vijay Sinha being the liaison. Among the various gaming characters she thought she could cosplay, Chell from Portal was finally chosen. Not much need be said about how iconic and radical the Portal games are.
According to Tanya, the costume and wig were relatively easy; the toughest part was painting the aperture logo on to the white tank top. Scythe’s Skunk works did a wonderful job on it with his awesome etching and spray painting skills. Building the Portal gun was the most ardous albeit rewarding task: after some brainstorming with Scythe about possible materials and lighting options, it was decided that a PVC pipe with EVA foam would be used, with an acrylic rod and LEDs – blue and orange, to represent the Portal colours. The gun was such a hit that more people seemed to want a selfie with it than with Chell!
Where’s there’s a Portal cosplay, there’s bound to be a Gordon Freeman (from the Half Life series by the same developer – Valve), and Tanya “bullied” her friend and game designer Vishesh Chopra into being the man in the orange suit. The entire cosplay setup was made possible due to help and support extended by Shunal Doke, Prateek Chakraborty, Rashi Chandra, Ashish Chopra and Vijay Sinha. In her first year of professional cosplaying, Tanya says the NGDC was a beautiful experience: “I met a lot of gamers and I got a lot of perspective on their world. Its always nice to meet passionate people.”
Tanya is a practicing veterinarian from Mumbai, with cosplaying and anime being her long time hobbies. She was one of the first members of the Mumbai Anime Club and helped run it since its infancy. The club now participates in cosplay at various events, such as the Cool Japan Fest.
Tanya is up for hire and can be contacted via her page on Facebook, Syrinx Cosplay and Supplies. They also rent out wigs!