Ashish Hemrajani

From an ad agency desk in Mumbai to the founder of BookMyShow, India's leading entertainment ticketing platform.

Country: India
Role: Founder & CEO
Known for: BookMyShow, BigTree Entertainment
Industry: Entertainment tech, online ticketing

Early life and education

Ashish Hemrajani grew up in Mumbai. He completed an MBA in Marketing at the Sydenham Institute of Management, Mumbai University, and began his career in advertising.

From advertising to an idea

Ashish worked as an account manager at the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson (JWT), where he handled accounts such as Hindustan Petroleum and CEAT Tyres. While on a holiday in South Africa in 1999, he saw how easily people there booked concert and entertainment tickets online. Back in India, tickets were still bought at physical counters, and he saw a gap he could fill.

Founding BigTree Entertainment

In 1999 he left advertising and launched BigTree Entertainment, together with Parikshit Dar and Rajesh Balpande. The roles split naturally: Ashish led the business and market opportunity, Parikshit led technology and Rajesh looked after finance. In those early years internet use was low, online payments were not yet routine, and customers had to be persuaded to trust booking online. BookMyShow became the consumer-facing brand through which BigTree built its business.

Surviving the dot-com crash

The dot-com crash of 2000–2001 dried up funding and slowed the business sharply. According to one profile, the company shrank from around 150 employees to just six. Ashish has been described as using that quiet period to learn about customer behaviour, partnerships and building efficient systems, lessons that shaped what came next.

BookMyShow takes off

The BookMyShow platform was relaunched in 2006 with a focus on movie ticketing and real-time seat availability. Over time it grew beyond cinema into live events, concerts, sports, comedy and theatre, and later reached into smaller cities. During the pandemic in 2020 the company moved quickly to online events and a streaming offering, BookMyShow Stream.

Timeline

1999Founds BigTree Entertainment with Parikshit Dar and Rajesh Balpande, inspired by online ticketing seen in South Africa.
2000–2001The dot-com crash cuts funding and forces the company to shrink drastically.
2006BookMyShow is launched as a movie ticketing platform with live seat availability.
2014Named in Fortune India's 40 Under 40. SAIF Partners is reported as an investor in the company.
2018TPG Growth is reported to have made a major investment.
2020Launches BookMyShow Stream and online events during the pandemic.

Recognition

Fortune India 40 Under 40 (2014)

Leadership lessons

Build for changing consumer behaviour before the market matures.
Technology alone does not drive adoption; trust, branding and convenience matter.
Go beyond a single transaction into discovery, and you strengthen the customer relationship.
A founding team that covers business, technology and finance gives a startup balance.

The takeaway: ticketing is copyable; owning discovery and the customer relationship is not. Ashish's story shows how a simple idea spotted on holiday, plus the persistence to survive a crash, can grow into a category-defining company.

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Sources

Written from public information, including FounderVox and CEO India Magazine. These sources are not independently verified, so dates, headcounts and investor details are as reported there.