I Look Forward To Anything That Can Grow The Entertainment Industry: Ashish Hemrajani, CEO, BookMyShow

Disney India brings a new Broadway-Style Musical to Mumbai’ NCPA in April 2018. The show known as Aladdin will be produced by BookMyShow and will be sponsored by PayPal. While discussing BookMyShow’s interest to venture into different areas of the entertainment industry Ashish Hemrajani, CEO and Founder, BookMyShow said, “We started as an online ticketing company and then we went into installing ticketing software and testing the back end capability. Today anything that has potential to grow the market and anything that our customers want are something we always encourage. Now that we have reached a scale and size, for the last 2 years we have helped in contributing to the entertainment industry where we have produced and co-produced a lot of shows. It’s all about growing the entire market and we are doing that with our partners. The spirit that brought us here is our willingness to grow the market.

While discussing the strategies to contribute to the entertainment industry, Ashish stated that it is imperative to analyze the data and keep the customer at the center of the business.

“It all begins and ends with your customer, most people get any show or formats based on their likes and dislikes. As far as BookMyShow is concerned, we only look at data and if that tells we can get something new then we go ahead. It has ends and begins with the customer’s data including price points, language, format, market and which city can this new idea work in. Hence we triangulate the qualitative and quantitative data and then take a call on what we need to get to the industry,” added Ashish.

After Disney’s first ever Broadway-style musical Beauty and the Beast that gained quite the attraction in 2015-16, Disney decided to host another Broadway musical based on Aladdin for the Indian audiences where BookMyShow is going to be the producers and ticketing partners while PayPal joins on board as the preferred payments partner. The musical has already awed audiences from United States of America, Australia & Japan before announcing their show in India.

The show will be reimagined and developed by recognized Indian talents to make it locally relevant, without losing the original essence of the Broadway show. Indian will locally produce a completely original, non-replica version of the Aladdin The Musical. The show, sponsored by PayPal, will also travel to Delhi and Hyderabad.

At the Ashish along with Abhishek Maheshwari and Vikrant Pawar from Disney India discussed their eagerness to grow the entertainment market. They also unveiled the first look of the musical today.

“Disney Stories are timeless and have a special meaning for everyone in the family. Stories like Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast are universal and can engage fans everywhere. In India, we are committed to developing world-class entertainment that families can relate to and become a part of their everyday lives. We partnered with BookMyShow, given their deep understanding of local audience and their quality of consumer engagement”. Said Abhishek Maheshwari, Country Head, Disney India.

Bhaktvatsal Sharma

BW Reporters The author is a journalist with BW Businessworld