Ashish Hemrajani: Founder of BookMyShow, Career, Spouse & More

Who is Ashish Hemrajani?

Ashish Hemrajani is an Indian entrepreneur who established BookMyShow, India’s leading online ticketing platform for concerts, movies, plays, sports, and live events. He is BookMyShow’s founder and Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Bigtree Entertainment, the parent firm that controls the online ticket purchasing venture BookMyShow, was founded by him in 1999.

Ashish Hemrajani-Biography

Name	Ashish Hemrajani
Date of Birth	in Year 1975
Birth Place	Mumbai, India
Age	46 (2023)
Nationality	Indian
Profession	Entrepreneur, Businessman
Education	Post Graduation from College of Commerce and Economics, Syndenham
Title	Founder & CEO, Book My Show
Marital Status	Married (Nilima Hemrajani)
Net Worth	around Rs.3000 Crore

About Personal Life

Ashish has lived in Mumbai with his family since he was a child. He was born into a prosperous household. His parents are quite proud of him since he has learned how to manage his time well. They agreed that Ashish had always been a disciplined, intelligent, and diligent individual. He is not open enough to share details about his personal life on social media. He is now married, and he attributes his success to his family, wife, and friends, who supported and encouraged him throughout.

Educational Qualifications

He attended Maneckji Cooper Education Trust in Mumbai for his education. He graduated from Mithbai College in Juhu. Later, he earned an MBA with a specialization in marketing at the College of Commerce and Economics in Syndenham. In 1997, he earned his master’s degree. The college was around 30 kilometers away from his home.

About Professional Life

He began his career with the J. Walter Thompson corporation after finishing his MBA. He was in charge of the company’s account management and customer management. He and his friends took a trip to South Africa. He was driven enough to create his own company. Later, in 1999, he established Bigtree Entertainment. Later, the firm launched its online ticketing service, BookMyShow.

Success Story of Ashish

When he was listening to a radio show regarding rugby ticket advertising, he had the idea to start an internet ticket booking business. At the time, an idea hit him, and he began spending his time and effort on developing an online ticket booking business in India. He persuaded two of his friends to leave their existing jobs and assist him in making his dream project in India a success. He was 24 at the time, and both of his pals decided to assist him with his venture. Bigtree Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. was created by Parikshit Dar, Rajesh Balpande, and Ashish Hemrajani, three friends, in 1999. The firm saw numerous ups and downs, but Ashish, as CEO, persevered despite all odds until his venture produced positive results. Multiplexes, a New Zealand-based software business, developed the first BookMyShow ticketing software. Bigtree Entertainment then developed BookMyShow, which began selling movie tickets over the phone and the internet in 1999. In India at the time, there were no internet payment services. As a result, the tickets were distributed to surrounding locations.

About Bigtree Entertainment

Bigtree Entertainment did not grow immediately after its establishment, but it gradually gained popularity among the public. The company’s struggling period lasted years. This is due to the globalization of website-based businesses, and people were not knowledgeable enough about the internet at the time. To avoid the certainty of a severe financial disaster, the number of staff was eventually cut. But Ashish had a difficult time in the firm, but the period passed gradually. He believed that the power of the internet would emerge one day and that his invention would be appreciated.

The firm began a happy period when it obtained its first investment of Rs.2.5 crore from J.P Morgan, which predicted the company’s growth. In India, the firm began selling tickets for multiplex companies.

Beginning of BookMyShow

Bigtree Entertainment, the parent firm, officially launched BookMyShow.com on February 21, 2017, and soon extended its operations to sell tickets online for movies, sports, events, concerts, and so on. Though it was a difficult period to establish an internet presence, Ashish maintained his patience through hard work. its also offered the option to purchase tickets to sporting events such as the IPL, ISL, and others.

Multiplex development was prospering with the increased usage of credit and debit cards. BMS has plenty of tickets available. People purchased tickets using BookMyShow’s website and mobile application. The online ticketing method has eliminated the issue of waiting for your turn while standing in line.

The corporation has also extended its operations in overseas nations. Today, BookMyShow’s net worth is Rs 3000 crore. In 2017, BookMyShow struck a Rs 1000 crore partnership with PVR to sell unsold tickets online. This transaction helped them capture money and attention. Over 400 employees are currently employed by the firm, which has offices in Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Chennai, and Bangalore.

On February 5, 2021, BookMyShow will introduce BookMyShow Stream. It will function as an online platform for watching movies using the Transaction Video-on-Demand (TVOD) system, allowing the corporation to stay up with the newest movie releases while also assisting in their fight against the coronavirus.

Due to the second wave of the COVID-19-induced shutdown, which has significantly impacted the firm, BookMyShow was forced to lay off 200 workers on June 10, 2021. Ashish Hemrajani has expressed his sadness about the departure of these individuals on his Twitter account, and he is also seeking outplacement for all of them.

Awards

• Ashish Hemrajani was awarded the prestigious “Executive of the Year 2018” award at The Ticketing Business Awards, which were hosted at Emirates Old Trafford in Manchester, England. The prize recognizes his innovative and imaginative leadership, which has revolutionized the history of ticket booking.
• At the 2nd edition of the award ceremony organized at the Eros Hotel, New Delhi, Ashish received the coveted BW Applause Person of the Year Award in 2019 for his excellent work in the events and experiences arena.

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