Almost every one of us has come across at least one Star Wars fan who goes on about the movies and their sequence and their favourite characters — Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Darth Vader. Their level of fandom is further evidenced in how they rearrange sentence to sound like Yoda or end conversations with “May the Force be with you”. It is enthusiastic fans such as these who once popularised a clever pun on that phrase—“May the Fourth be with you”—and began marking May 4 as ‘Star Wars Day’.

In Mumbai, the celebrations are not at full scale for many followers of the franchise who typically go around meeting fellow aficionados on this day. They use the occasion to relive their childhood Star Wars experiences, which in adulthood have translated into serious investments towards acquiring branded games and figurines. City-based creative professional Nikhil Fernandes was introduced to the franchise by his father as a child and has been a steadfast fan since 1994. That has meant collecting every kind of action figure from the movies, 50 Lego toys, receiving memorabilia as gifts and souvenirs, and playing the Return of the Jedi game on his Gameboy. He has even grown to identify closely with the subject matter. “We are creative people so we are like Jedis. Just like Jedis, you have to empathise with the world to be creative,” he explains.