Let the games begin...

Tan tan tan ran tan ran ran tan.... Taaaaaan ran tan ran taaan ran tan ran taaaaan — the GoT theme song is one of the best earworms anyone can ask for. We join tens of thousands of people worldwide, who have been humming it for days; the anticipation of the epic HBO drama series turning us into nervous wrecks. Is Jon Snow dead? Will Cersei grow her hair back to its original length before the series ends? Hodor. Hodor Hodor Hodor, Hodor Hodor … Hodor?

In spite of all the violence, gore, incest, unmentionable scenes and sheer disregard for human life — GoT has become a cult phenomenon and Chennai cannot get enough of it. Since the first trailer released last year, social media in the city has been buzzing non-stop.

One example that has all of us in utter stitches is entertainment brand Fully Filmy’s hilarious take on it for a poster series.  “Like everything we’ve done so far, we wanted to give GoT a Kollywood twist. If you look at it, Kollywood is a lot like the series. Each actor/actress has their own traits, and they’re all trying to outdo each other and get to the top (barring Superstar, of course),” smiles co-founder Raunaq Mangottil. He adds that it took them a couple of hours to brainstorm and match characters with actors. So, Nayanthara morphed into Khaleesi,

Rajinikanth into a White Walker, Arvind Swamy became Jamie Lannister, and so on! Each image is accompanied by an appropriate quote — something only fans will know to use. “We will make it a make it a point to watch the premiere on Monday morning at office with the entire team! We all want Jon Snow to come back so badly, that we created a product out of it on our store!” he says.

A group of four dancers — Akshaya Balan, Akkshitha Suresh, Raksha Rai and Gayathri Sivadan — showed yet another way to celebrate by doing a classical dance to the Indian Jam Project’s cover of the theme song. “We are die-hard fans! The four of us were planning such choreographies of music and the IJP’s cover was very attractive. We tried to include a lot more than just classical movements and added a contemporary component,” says Akshaya.

Students of Shree Natya Niketan in Coimbatore are also planning to release a complete video of the dance by mid-May! Board-gamers in the city are greeting the premiere by holding private gaming sessions with friends. A few like Ramiah Palvanna, a information security engineer, own the offical GoT board game as well. “It is cut-throat and like the series, it is about the rush to claim the Iron Throne. But the only thing is, it has many components and is very time-consuming. The houses I like to represent are the Baratheons and the Starks,” says Ramiah. Turns out, the game is actually based on the books — so it makes a pretty interesting play. “We are planning something for the premiere, but it’s not fixed. I’d rather watch it from day one,  than wait for more episodes and risk spoilers,” he laughs.

Then, there are others like stylist-designer Prajanya Anand, who recently celebrated her birthday like a queen — literally (she was Khaleesi). Hosted at her terrace, the party included a DIY cardboard Iron Throne, edible dragons eggs, a GOT-themed cake, with plenty of props to go around. Her girl gang added some serious Westeros glam to the event alright; we wish Jon Snow was still alive (or is he?) to take a look at them! “It was a lot of fun and it didn’t take that long to execute. The sets took three-four days and the materials are easily available at prop shops,” she says. When asked about her expectations, she says, “I have been binge-watching S5 to refresh my memory — but I’m concerned about who they will finish off next! They have almost run out of characters because most are dead. I’m going to wait for a bit until a few more episodes come out, and watch them together,” she concludes.