BOTTOMLINE: People can now book cinema tickets online and have it delivered home

Online ticket services scowl at black marketers

Lalitha Srinivasan

Appearances can be quite deceptive. For instance, who would have believed that a lanky man with a calm and serene face could have been the mastermind behind the horrendous terror attacks in the US last month. In fact, Osama bin Laden could pass off for a sage on his looks alone.

If you go by appearances, black marketers in cinema tickets are often instantly recognisable by their shuffling gait, shifty eyes and T-shirts that read ‘Big boys play at night’ or something like that.
But things are changing. Recently, outside a popular Mumbai theatre, business was brisk and brazen, with half-a-dozen shabbily attired young men touting their wares, “Balcony tickets for Rs 150”. A smartly dressed man accompanied by an equally well togged out girlfriend walked up to one of them and bought a couple of tickets for the film, Rush Hour 2.

But what happened after this was intriguing. Instead of walking into the auditorium relieved and happy, the debonair youth and his companion hung around outside. Up trotted an old couple, obviously well-off and equally obviously desperate for tickets. Without batting an eyelid, our young man walked up to the two and sold them his tickets at a higher price (eavesdroppers say the amount was Rs 200) and walked away with his lovely lady. It was clearly a case of two smart operators! As a post-script, there were several empty seats in the auditorium at this show although, outside, the board said, “House Full”. Obviously, the black marketers had failed to make a killing that day.

In this scenario, what’s the fate of companies such as Indyatickets.com, which were launched primarily to offer ticketing solutions to cinema aficionados? How does Indyatickets.com, which was launched in May this year, plan to deal with this menace? Says Ashish Hemrajani, founder of Indyatickets.com: “The only way to deal with these smart operators is to create awareness for our services across the nation. We launched this service for the convenience of customers. With the help of Indyatickets.com, people can now book tickets from the comfort of their home.”

According to Mr Hemrajani, the main objective behind the launch of this service is to offer comprehensive ticketing solutions to cinema lovers across the country. “They can use our call centres to book tickets. Or they can use our website to book tickets from home. Very recently, we have launched 12 kioskss in Mumbai,” he adds. The company plans to set up many such kiosks in major metros across the nation very soon. Mr Hemrajani claims that Indyatickets.com is the only national player who offers such a special service to people. “Of course, there are other regional small players in this segment. With the growing popularity of this niche segment, we will soon eradicate the black marketing of cinema tickets in India,” hopes Mr Hemrajani. If wishes were horses... anyway, let’s keep our fingers crossed.