By VIVIENNE WONG
alltherage@thestar.com.my

THOUSANDS of zombie jokes were hurled at him and he suffered the ignominy of being shot down by almost every corporate, fitness and telco company in town. It sure wasn’t an easy start for Charanpirabu Mayachandrapirapu, better known as ChaCha Charan, when he pitched the idea for a zombie run in Malaysia two years ago.

Out to get you: ChaCha Charan struggled to sell his zombie run idea initially, but now he does zombie runs for large corporate clients.

Apparently, the general consensus was that a zombie run was no different than all the other runs that were taking place that year. So, the 26-year-old decided to incorporate elements of treasure hunt, haunted house and kejar-kejar, an endeavour which eventually earned him seven sponsors after spending the whole of 2012 looking for funds.

After that, he, along with partner Helena Bin, from Systematic Mutiny, his events-based company responsible for the zombie run and other unorthodox events in Malaysia, went on a mission to conceptualise and execute the entire event. Work included spreading the word, ordering t-shirts, planning the obstacles and, handling marketing and sales – all proudly done on their own.

At one point, ChaCha even chipped in with money from his own pocket.

In the end, their blood, sweat and tears were not in vain. The tickets for the first zombie run, held on Feb 2, 2013, were sold out within three days. At RM75 per pop, that’s not exactly cheap! Yet, he successfully pulled in 1,000 participants.

He also managed to walk away with about RM2,000 profit after settling the overheads, which included location rental, make up, wardrobe and transportation, all of which came up to the grand total of RM150,000.

However, it’s never been about money for ChaCha. His day job as the community manager for local food website FriedChillies keeps a roof over his head.

But that isn’t stopping him and his current team of four from returning with a two-day zombie run at one of Malaysia’s biggest annual youth events, Festival Belia Putrajaya 2014.

The team’s debut at this year’s festival, which runs from May 23-25, will be its second major event since its inception. And the bonus this time around is, participants get to choose between a day and/or night run.

Imagine being trapped in a maze filled with zombies with no weapon to defend yourself. What do you do then?

At least 2,000 participants are expected this time around with 250 zombies creating pandemonium in the maze, which is apparently the size of four football fields combined!

“We have a whole lot of surprises in store. We have a containment unit gone wrong, rows of bed sheets splattered with blood, a haunted house and an area where you have to crawl under a zombie infested net,” said ChaCha, providing a sneak peek.

As a fan of zombie movies and comics, he feels that Malaysians love horror online casino or anything supernatural and are constantly curious about it. Hence, he saw this as a good base to start a zombie run.

“If I put you in the middle of a maze and don’t tell you there’s a zombie in there, you’ll take your time,” he explained. “But if I tell you there’s a zombie chasing you, you’d want to be quick. So, there’s clearly a difference between knowing of a zombie’s presence and not. And with the right type of information, you can cause fear in that person.”

Mind games aside, ChaCha promises a whole new different experience this year that will be fun for both participants and zombie volunteers. ChaCha revealed that this would also allow all of them to cultivate their skills, which is the main objective of the run.

“For the zombie volunteers, it serves as a personal development platform for them to get a second chance at exploring things that took a back seat when they were in school, such as acting, make up and arts.

Zombie volunteers will be taught how to act, dress and scare participants of the zombie run.

“There’ll be free workshops on make up techniques, scare tactics, teamwork and how to be zombies,” he said.

“It’s the same for the participants as well. Apart from getting a good scare, I will implement elements that require them to work together and come up with strategies. It cultivates leadership skills because a lot more decisions have to be made and you have to be quick on your feet at all times.”

So, it’s no surprise that corporations are now approaching ChaCha to plan their private events. His next step is to take the run to other cities.

“I’m looking forward to working with other states to organise zombie runs there and hopefully, it’s infectious enough to grow. I’m looking at Penang next, then Johor Baru and Malacca after that. Then, I can create the zombie run league,” he said. World domination plans might still be in the pipelines, but the smell of decaying flesh and paranoia is already stirring the senses.