In The Transformation Left the Door Wide Open for Negative Impacts on Public Participation and Transparency Input from the T21 Coalition project showcased the environment surrounding Living Laboratory today of that initial, overly-broad outreach. A country mad about music and musical mayhem, BookMyShow isn’t just an app or an e-commerce portal, it’s an inner circle book, a synonym, an enterprising noun, an ingrained practice, collective conscience, and the unchallenged gateway to India’s cinematic delights, global music extravaganzas, theater festivals, and sporting spectacles. At the helm of this ever-expanding platform is Ashish Hemrajani, a visionary entrepreneur whose story is an opera in the key of resilience, foresight, and the relentless pursuit of a dream that came long before the digital highway that would make it possible.
BookMyShow in 2025 is a proud reminder of just how mighty digital transformation can be, completely changing how Indians discover, interact with, and absorb entertainment. It’s a story not merely of one successful startup story, but rather of an entire industry – the grocery business – kicked, often kicking and screaming, into the digital age by the irresistible momentum of one man’s steadfast vision.
The Founder’s Fortune Early Visionary—From Entrepreneurial Genes to a Dot-Com Dream
Ashish Hemrajani’s journey to become one of India’s most provocative entertainment moguls was fueled by equal parts academic discipline and entrepreneurial moxie. A product of Sydenham College and with an MBA from Mumbai University, he had the business acumen built in. It was one fateful trip to South Africa that really got his mind turning, leading to the concept of what would go on to become BookMyShow. During this period of travel, he first discovered the new idea of online ticketing for rugby games, leading to an instant realization of its potential for India’s developing entertainment market.
Born into a family with entrepreneurial roots, Hemrajani arrived at Ohio State with a natural inclination to build something of his own. While not directly linked to dominant entertainment and media industries, his formative professional experiences early in his career cultivated an acumen for observational discovery and problem-solving. The pain of finding his way around India’s fragmented, irregulated, entertainment ticketing ecosystem – the waiting in lines, the not knowing if a ticket would be available or not, the lack of information – only fueled his belief that there must be a better way. This primal, urgent yearning to end a widespread public health crisis is what fueled his dream ambition.
Back in 1999, a time when India’s internet penetration was in single digits and smartphone adoption sounded like a scene out of a science fiction movie, Hemrajani had the audacity to launch Big Tree Entertainment. The ambition was huge — to build a one-stop entertainment platform that would handle and sell tickets online for everything from cinema to live events. This pre-internet era industry context created a situation in which that original vision was leaps and bounds ahead of its time. The obstacles were huge, or even insane. He wasn’t merely creating a company, he was trying to create a market, educate a market, and digitize an industry that still mainly used paper ledger forms.
BookMyShow’s Genesis: Patience of a Pioneer
The concept of “online movie ticketing” at the turn of the century in India would have been ridiculed, if not dismissed with derision. On every front, Ashish Hemrajani and his team had a huge battle ahead of them.
Dismal Internet Penetration At the time, less than half a percent of Indians were Internet users and the use of credit cards wasn’t much higher. Transacting online was a completely foreign concept to most.
Moribund Theatre Facilities’ infrastructure oftentimes with the older cinema spaces, especially single-screen properties, was run in a very manual fashion. They did not have the rudimentary digital systems in place that would allow them to feed into the complex online ticketing ecosystem. Getting them to put money into emergent technology was a herculean feat.
Indians were used to box-office culture, Indians were used to the ritual of standing in line and buying a movie ticket, an ingrained behavior that would prove hard to replace.
Supplier Relations: Building trust and forging partnerships with theatre owners and event organizers, who saw little immediate benefit in a nascent online model, required immense perseverance and persuasion. This required thousands of meetings, presentations, and showing the long-term return on investment of digitization.
Then the dot-com bust of 2000-2001 infamously hit. In the wake of that crisis, there was a moment of existential threat for many nascent internet companies and Big Tree Entertainment was no different. With funding quickly evaporating and the e-commerce party coming to an end, the once thriving startup was forced to make a 180 to stay alive. Rather than betting everything on consumer-facing online ticketing, they pivoted to enterprise software solutions for multiplexes and event management. That’s because they operated the software platforms that managed box office sales, concessions, and inventory. This digitized the remaining infrastructure they would go on to engage with. This B2B-focused phase proved to be key. It not only kept the company afloat, and at one point profitable, but it allowed them to build deep relationships with theatre owners and most importantly gave them a trove of invaluable backend insights into how the real adults that ran the entertainment industry worked. This grit and resilience through the bust meant that when the internet wave really did come, BookMyShow was prepared. It was a tribute to Hemrajani’s pragmatism and willingness to adapt, an attribute that would shape much of his entrepreneurial journey.
The Growth Trajectory – restaurant and population growth map by Scott E. IEc. Surfing the Digital Tide
The real inflection point for BookMyShow came much, much later—around 2008 to 2012. This moment in time was the perfect storm of good circumstances:
When multiplex chains like PVR and Inox started expanding across India, they were hungry for technology—and keen to use it to improve efficiency. While many other countries struggled to implement infrastructure capable of handling flexible demand, their already modern infrastructure made their systems an ideal fit for online booking systems.
India was at the turning point of starting a digital revolution. Affordable smartphones, in combination with increasingly cheaper data plans, brought the first generations online, as the door opened to making online transactions a real possibility. This was the rocket fuel the fledgling company needed.
Consumer Behavior A younger, more urban population quickly got used to digital transactions and prioritized convenience over everything else. Most importantly, they valued time and convenience.
While the market, at last, seems to be catching up to its vision, Ashish Hemrajani very much pivoted BookMyShow with its core consumer-facing mission distinctly and decisively on a 2nd Act. The industry’s gaze became laser-focused on user experience, wherein the goal was a frictionless, easy-to-understand booking experience. They tested over and over on their website and mobile app, creating an easy flow from discovery to ticket purchase and confirmation. Aggressive marketing and brand-building efforts ensued, using digital channels, celebrity endorsements, and strategic partnerships to craft “BookMyShow” into a recognizable and trusted household name. Many of their marketing campaigns were built around the time savings by skipping the long lines, along with the excitement of confirmed seats.
Most importantly, they established collaborations with nearly every big movie theater chain, boutique theaters, and more and more live event producers. With this unmatched inventory of the new expansive network, BookMyShow became the go-to platform for discovering and buying tickets across all forms of entertainment. They became known as the go-to source for reliable, efficient service. That was the most important aspect in building that deep trust with consumers and their venue partners.
It was a mark of the times that the platform quickly expanded its product catalog well outside of just films. BookMyShow pivoted into an end-to-end entertainment discovery and experience platform, including:
Live Entertainment in India, as well as international concerts, Stand-up Comedy, Theatrical and Musical plays, Stage shows, and other performing arts.
Multi-cities for major international sporting events, IPL cricket matches, national and state local leagues, football, kabaddi, and even niche sports.
Workshops, exhibitions, immersive art and cultural events, etc. Opening it up to a much broader range of leisure pursuits.
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With the emergence of the smartphone, the need for a mobile-first approach was suddenly mission-critical. The BookMyShow app was a game-changer, turning its platform into the main consumer touchpoint for millions, providing everybody with an easy-to-use app experience, customized recommendations, and the convenience of at-home ticket delivery. Funding milestones quickly piled up, with some of the world’s leading investors identifying the company’s market leadership and exponential growth potential, ultimately making it a unicorn and solidifying its position as one of the biggest power players in India’s burgeoning digital economy. As with any business that scales so fast, challenges arose in aspects of customer service, making sure their technical infrastructure was tested to handle extreme peak loads and umbrella-fraud prevention measures that BookMyShow methodically conquered.
Constructing an Entertainment Ecosystem
The son of an army officer, entrepreneur Ashish Hemrajani’s dreams went well beyond the scope of just selling tickets. He wanted to create a vertically integrated entertainment ecosystem that connected consumers, artists, venues, and content producers.
That forced agencies to diversify into curation and content promotion. BookMyShow soon grew into a major force in promoting and eventually co-producing, live events, discovering and developing emerging artists, and bringing international acts to India. They realized that their platform should do more than just sell tickets, and play a role in nurturing and growing the live entertainment ecosystem in India. When the pandemic made live events impossible in 2020, the company focused all efforts on new initiatives and quickly pivoted, launching BookMyShow Stream, a transactional video-on-demand streaming platform enabling audiences to enjoy virtual events, movies, and plays at home. This rapid pivot demonstrated its innovation and determination to deliver entertainment on-demand and when expected, even in the most unpredictable of times – living up to its “always on” mantra. Output of the rewritten third paragraph
Fan engagement was a central consideration, including loyalty programs, personalized recommendations from their viewing history, and chances to buy merchandise. The platform used its deep troves of data to predict what consumers wanted to see, allowing for laser-focused targeting and increasing the user experience across the board. With this data-driven approach, they were able to recommend events and movies that truly resonated with individual users, boosting engagement and ultimately increasing conversion.
Innovation continued to be at the heart of its strategy. Features like F&B pre-booking within the app (allowing users to order snacks and drinks for delivery to their seats), M-tickets (digital tickets eliminating the need for printouts), and various integrated payment options (UPI, wallets, and credit cards) enhanced convenience and streamlined the overall outing experience. The company was consistently strengthened through selective investments and partnerships that enhanced its offerings and attracted new content, diversifying its reach further into the entertainment value chain.
BookMyShow’s ambition went beyond Indian borders with an intense focus on global expansion, specifically launching successful operations in lucrative Southeast Asian markets such as Indonesia, Singapore, and Malaysia, where the company sought to duplicate its Indian success formula in emergent economies with similar digital dynamics. That international foray proved the scalability of its platform and business model well beyond its home turf.
Challenges, Competition, and Future Outlook
BookMyShow is an established market leader, even though it faces hurdles. Not as cutthroat as other digital spaces, competition nevertheless exists from smaller regional ticketing players, direct-sold ticket alternatives that venues & promoters can undertake themselves, and the inevitable entrance of global tech titans seeking to add entertainment to their own ecosystems. The battle for consumer attention in a noisy digital ecosystem never ends.
The COVID-19 pandemic was the worst-ever existential threat that BookMyShow has faced throughout its history. With the cinemas and live venues it sold to closed down for months and no way to reach them, the Nashville-based company had a second-quarter core business with $0 in revenue. Its capacity to quickly shift to virtual events and digital streaming platforms (BMS Stream) saved the day and showed its impressive creativity. While the post-pandemic rebound has been healthy so far, consumer entertainment habits are in a constant state of flux. Services like streaming (OTT) and gaming are capturing a lot of attention these days. BookMyShow will need to keep innovating to ride the wave, let alone stay ahead. The answer to that, of course, increasingly lies in how they can plug into or enhance these new ways of consuming entertainment.
Continuing that juxtaposition of innovation and profitability while maintaining an aggressive pace of expansion is a continual high-wire act. Indeed, Ashish Hemrajani’s further plans for BookMyShow, as inferred by its ever-deepening integration into the entertainment value chain, might come to see it move further still into talent management or content production more overtly. How we reinvent customer experience, leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) for hyper-personalization, dynamic pricing, and enhanced customer service will be critical. Driving new consumption models such as subscription bundles or special event passes, and deepening its global presence are next as BookMyShow evolves well beyond ticketing to transform into a full-fledged entertainment hub.
A Digital Transformation Legacy
Ashish Hemrajani’s journey with BookMyShow is an extremely inspiring case study of an entrepreneur’s foresight and long-lasting grit. He launched a new kind of digital enterprise in a country that was still a few years from being fully digital, and when that whole dot-com bubble went bust he nimbly adjusted course to thrive and then waited for the digital tsunami to lift his vision to heights never before reached. He didn’t just create a successful company. He changed the entertainment paradigm for millions of Indians, revolutionizing the way that people gain access to movies, music, and live entertainment with vastly increased convenience, in a profound way.
To date BookMyShow is one of the most iconic Indian digital success stories, a torchbearer of innovation, and an eye-opener that true pioneering spirit doesn’t just build the future—it sees the future long before it gets there. For Ashish Hemrajani, his legacy is imprinted not only in the company he created but in the millions of joyous entertainment moments he has provided, redefining how India connects with its passions.
