KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 4 — M. Charanpirabu (known popularly as Lord ChaCha Charan IV) is the 25-year-old organiser of the first-ever Zombie Run in Malaysia. The Zombie Run Malaysia 2013 was loosely based on the American “Run For Your Lives Zombie 5K” and it was a storyline-based treasure hunt-cum-run where teams of five beat the clock to find tokens and avoid being “killed” by zombies in costumes. A person “dies” when the zombie tears the life strap off their body.

The law graduate who subsequently got his second degree in broadcasting runs an events company called Systematic Mutiny on the side.

He is currently the community director and consultant of Fried Chillies (www.friedchillies.com) a Malaysian food site. Charanpirabu is also a self-professed foodie and geek.

After the Zombie Run, there were many other similar runs. What do you think about that?

If they want to copy my idea, that’s cool. There were a couple of them actually, and one of them failed. Some were even so bold as to duplicate what I did, doing everything in the exact same manner – from the way I used social media to make it viral, the messages, format, everything! The funny thing is that I have the rights to the name but I don’t want to be petty about it.

I’ll be organising one again next year. I can’t say that I’ll be the best when it comes to Zombie Runs but I can promise to be different. All this copying gives me the comfort that my idea works. They say imitation is the best form of flattery.

You have to combat piracy through innovation and the next Zombie Run will be better. The advantage I have is that obviously they are one step behind if they’re copying me.

Some of the copycats have bigger sponsors but not everything worked out well. I heard that people stole money and the volunteers ran away. But it doesn’t faze me at all.

If I can inspire people by taking risks like I did, that’s a good thing. I’m very lucky to have a good zombie team behind me. They really fought beside me and I like working with them.

You must like zombies very much to create the Zombie Run. What’s your favourite zombie movie?

I used to like Shaun of the Dead but now my favourite zombie movie has got to be Zombieland. It really showcased how the world would be if there was a zombie apocalypse.

I also follow The Walking Dead TV series but am more interested in the comics. I started reading comics since I was seven. My elder sister bought comics for me when I broke my leg then. She got me X-Men and Dragonball.

Now I read manga like Attack on Titan, One Piece and for American comics, my favourite has got to be Batman. I’ve got a huge collection of comics and now I pass it on to my nephews and nieces. They are aged from seven to 10, about the same age I was when I first started reading comics.

The current stories are darker and more serious with death and gore. It’s a bit too much for kids so I pass them older comics. My nephews and  nieces like X-Men because it’s about mutants defending humans who hate them and it’s easy for kids to relate.

Stuff like Batman can get too philosophical. I want to share comics that paint a picture that’s clear of who’s the bad guy and good guy to my nephews and nieces.

You’ll be surprised to know that kids are influenced by the cover of the comics. I would encourage them to read the newspapers but most of it is bad news. With comics, you can learn a lot. My nephew became a class monitor because of Cyclops, an X-Man character. He got the idea of working together as a team, something Cyclops is famous for.

Do you also play zombie themed boardgames or video games?

I do play a lot of video games, all types of games ever since I was three years old. Currently I have Pokemon X and Y on my Nintendo 3DS. I also do play zombie based boardgames. In 2011, deck-building board games became really popular and one of them was Dominion.

Actually, my friends and I created Malaysia’s first ever board game called Switch. It was featured in Germany’s Spiel des Jahres which is a game convention that awards games. The game we created was based on feudal Japan and you had these tiles that can be switched. We spent a year developing the game and I’ve got to say that it’s my favourite.

It was published by Outplay Games in 2008 and it was translated into four different languages. You can still buy it in Kinokuniya but we only had 10,000 copies printed. Next year I’ll be working on more board games and iPad games.

What do you do for a living when you’re not organising the Zombie Run?

I own Systematic Mutiny, an events company on the side. Right now I’m working at Fried Chillies doing creative consultancy, events and such. Basically, I’m a community director. I’ve been working there since the beginning of the year.

Recently, I just organised a Nasi Lemak event. It is the one and only thing that unifies the different races without sounding like 1Malaysia. We chose 10 of the best nasi lemak sellers (we personally tasted all of them) and awarded them.

We want to make people happy through food. I hope to elevate Malaysian food to the next level making it as good as spaghetti, pasta, pizza and other popular foods.

Prior to doing this, I was one of the founders of EPIC Homes, a collective that helped build houses for the orang asli community.

What’s your favourite food to eat and to cook?

Of course, Maggi mee would be the easiest to cook but I would have to say that I love my mom’s egg curry. Whenever we have a Deepavali celebration, it will run out really fast.

I learned how to cook the egg curry from my mom but it just doesn’t taste the same. When it comes to cooking, your love really matters. A simple dish would taste good if you make it for someone you care about and pour your love and soul into it. You can actually feel the care put into it.

So what can we expect at the next Zombie Run?

This year we had people from as far as Europe joining us at the Zombie Run. We want to take it to an international level, maybe work with airline companies to have packages. I plan to fine tune the mistakes of the last event, removing dangerous elements. The competitive mindset of the participants is contagious and the kiasu attitude injures everyone else.

We will refine the strategy for people like this because we don’t want them to injure other people using underhanded methods. As long as nobody gets hurt, that’s the most important thing.

The mechanics will change, some things will be taken out and we will have a proper structure and a team. The first Zombie Run was an untested idea and sponsors didn’t want to take risks.

To organise the event, I had to collaborate with people through relationships I have and leverage on social media. I had no money to advertise for the event.

But it was in big demand and we had people below the age of 18 wanting to join. Parents wrote to me asking to allow their younger children to join in but we couldn’t do that because it might be dangerous. Perhaps the next event, I will find a way to let people watch the Zombie Run without participating.

Find out more about Zombie Run Malaysia on https://www.facebook.com/ZombieRunMalaysia

This story was first published in Crave in the print edition of The Malay Mail on January 3, 2014