Mar 02: In a startup ecosystem obsessed with valuation tags and unicorn milestones, one founder chose a different ambition: survival.
Ashish Hemrajani, Founder of BookMyShow, has spent 26 years building what is today the backbone of India’s entertainment economy. From faxing his original business plan in 1999 to navigating the dot-com crash, regulatory barriers, global financial shocks, and a pandemic that brought revenues to zero, his journey is not one of overnight scale, but of endurance.
In Episode One of Season 3 of The Rockford Circle, Hemrajani recounts how an idea sparked during a backpacking trip to South Africa became a cultural infrastructure layer powering India’s cinemas, concerts, and live experiences across nearly 900 cities and towns.
The Spark Under a Tree
The idea for BookMyShow was born in 1999 when a radio commercial selling rugby tickets online triggered a simple question: why couldn’t India simplify ticketing the same way? The parent entity, Big Tree Entertainment, was named after the moment of inspiration under a tree at Storms River Valley. Funding from Chase Capital Partners (JP Morgan) arrived even before the founders had opened a corporate bank account.
But India wasn’t ready. There were roughly 22,000 credit cards in the country, no smartphones, weak internet penetration, and fragmented telecom systems. Cinema regulations required physical ticket stamping and prepayment of entertainment tax. BookMyShow began as a phone-based ticketing service across seven cities, working with state governments to amend rules before digital ticketing could scale.
When the Bubble Burst
The 2001–02 dot-com crash nearly erased the company. Headcount fell from 150 employees to six. In a defining act of conviction, Hemrajani bought back the company in a slump sale for $100,000, mortgaging his mother’s house to raise the capital. He repaid her within 18 months.
Between 2002 and 2007, the company pivoted from a consumer-facing model to a B2B2C infrastructure strategy, building ticketing technology for cinemas, powering box office and concession systems, and embedding itself deeply into the industry’s operational backbone.
Built for Durability, Not Headlines
Today, BookMyShow covers 85–90% of India’s cinemas. Yet structural challenges persist: India has roughly 12 screens per million people compared to around 120 in the United States and 60 in China.
During COVID-19, revenues fell to zero and employee strength reduced from 1,650 to about 550 at peak restructuring. Despite this, the company maintained insurance coverage for laid-off employees and their families for 18 months, continued CSR initiatives, and launched free digital streaming to support artists and audiences. The business has since grown larger than its pre-pandemic scale.
Hemrajani’s philosophy remains clear: profitability precedes valuation. “We’re not a unicorn. We’re a cockroach,” he says—choosing resilience over vanity metrics.
Protect the Artist. Always.
At its core, BookMyShow operates with a fiduciary lens, protecting artists while acting as a shield between performers and fans. The company avoids overexposure of leadership, preferring backstage execution over front-stage visibility.
Through its CSR arm, BookAChange, ₹1 from every ticket contributes to arts, sports, and community programs. Its long-term partnership with YUWA, a girls’ football initiative in Jharkhand, has grown participation from six girls to over 500, with one participant earning a full scholarship to Harvard.
Leadership, Limitations, and Life
Hemrajani speaks candidly about living with ADD, ADHD, dyslexia, and dyscalculia—seeing them not as constraints, but as perspective. “I don’t see the wall; I see what’s beyond it,” he shares, emphasising the importance of building teams that compensate for blind spots.
He advocates perseverance, humility, sustainable economics, and the discipline to follow through on commitments. On industry evolution, he calls for better revenue distribution, greater investment in writers and creative talent, and rationalised pricing structures to ensure equitable, not equal, economics.
His guiding philosophy comes from sailing, a lifelong passion: compete against the elements, not opponents; adjust to changing conditions rather than complain.
“In life, all you can do is adjust your sails.”
From a phone-based startup in an unready ecosystem to a multi-country digital platform powering India’s experience economy, BookMyShow’s story is less about hype cycles—and more about building something that lasts.