Jatin Varma, Founder, Comic Con India Unveils Exciting Insights of the IP, Challenges Faced & More!

by  EVENTFAQS Bureau Entertainment | December 18, 2019 | Interview

Comic Con India

Comic Con, one of India’s greatest pop-culture events is back with brand new experiences and the best of comics, books, film & TV, merchandize and gaming at Mumbai Comic Con 2019. The event is scheduled for December 20th to December 22nd, 2019 between 11:00 am and 8:00 pm at NSIC Exhibition Ground, Okhla.

Here is an exclusive interview with Jatin Varma, Founder, Comic Con India where he shares some exciting insights of Comic Con India.

With Comic Con India having announced its 9th edition in Delhi, tell us how the property has grown year on year since its inception.

Its grown massively, from approximately 5000 visitors in the first edition and about 25-30 exhibitors, we have over 45,000 paid visitors with close to 200 exhibitors this year. The event has evolved beyond just an exhibition to an experiential event. Its become one of the most awaited events each year in the city.

What kind of challenges do you have to face while managing multi-city events like Comic Con India?  

Like any Live Events business, we face our share of infrastructure and event management issues. India is certainly a unique place to run a business and Live Events is certainly a challenging space, one has to be always ready to face unexpected challenges.

Take us through your journey, on the evolution of the live event industry and bringing International Artists in India.

I started this venture without a Live Events background, I came from content & marketing. For me, it was a learning curve for the first few years. Our events have certainly come a long way from where we started, it is a year long-planned operation now. With respect to bringing in International Artist, we deal with a different kind of guest, usually a literary guest, where the challenge is mostly booking them on available dates that would work for your shows.

What are the unique brand associations/sponsors with the property? How do brands benefit from associating with Comic Con?

We have a number of brands that have worked with us during the 2019 season, from Maruti Suzuki Arena, which is our Anchor sponsor to the likes of Lenovo, Myntra, Vodafone, Asian Paints, Doritos, Cadbury/Mondelez, Hotstar, Lionsgate Play, Suzuki Motorcycles, Sony Entertainment, Disney India, Warner Brothers Pictures & many more.

We create the most unique events in the country and one of the best places for experiential marketing. Our audience lies in the sought after 18-36 yrs, age group, thereby making it worth a brand's time & effort. The fans at our shows are eager to engage and experience something unique, thus a great opportunity for experiential marketing. The fact that we have doubled the number of brand partnerships in the past 4 years, proves the popularity of our platform.

In your opinion, where does a pop-cultural festival like Comic Con stand in the overall LIVE entertainment market in India as the audience has a wide range of options to choose from? Tell us about the future growth potential/plans for the IP?

I believe we have an extremely unique platform, unlike any other out there. The Live Events market still has more space to grow, audiences are looking for something unique to experience all the time. We plan to take our event to more markets, we hope to launch 4 more cities in the next 2 years and also experiment with spin-off events, especially in gaming.