BookMyShow checks in to India's crowded streaming party with live events

Sunburn Home Festival, the virtual edition of the electronic dance music festival, is among the first events BookMyShow Online will stream live.

In the streaming video rush comes a new creature this week: BookMyShow (BMS) Online is a streaming platform for live events. Sunburn Home Festival, the virtual edition of Asia’s biggest electronic dance music festival, is among the first events it will stream live on July 10-11. You can pay Rs 99 for a day or Rs 199 for both days.

BMS Online also conducts a virtual musical talent discovery show with Kailash Kher as judge. The finalé will be streamed live on July 7. Other upcoming events include the India shows of Doncaster (South Yorkshire) band Bang Bang Romeo and London-based band Electric Enemy. There are theatre workshops with veterans like Puneet Issar, Rohini Hattangadi, Rakesh Bedi, and Anant Mahadevan. These are among the first of many concerts, events, and workshops lined up by India’s largest ticketing portal in its bid to ride out the pandemic storm.

In a normal year, BMS sells 200 million tickets of movies, plays, and other events. “We have always been the de-facto place for consumers to discover out-of-home,” says Albert Almeida, chief operating officer, BMS.

To stay connected with its user base during the lockdown, BMS began “delivering content and experiences at home”, says Almeida. It facilitated the discovery, registration, and reach for over 750 events, such as Live From HQ (music, comedy, spoken word), Theatre Live (drama, monologues, theatre, reading), Vodafone #RechargeForGood (music), among others. Close to 4 million people saw these events in the first month of the lockdown, claims the firm. Currently close to half a million viewers log into these virtual events every week. Note that all of these were free. “We saw great affinity for comedy, music, international artistes, and upskilling through master classes,” says Almeida.

Armed with these insights, BMS started moving some of these events to pay in the latter part of June. Now about two-thirds all such events are behind paywall. With BMS Online, everything is pay.

Enforcement Directorate probes real estate deal of DHFL associate company

Essential Hospitality sold the office to a firm controlled by ex-Maharashtra CM's son-in-law.

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) is examining a real estate transaction worth Rs 121 crore between Essential Hospitality (EHPL), a Dewan Housing Finance (DHFL) associate group firm, and Charak Pharma, an entity controlled by Raj Shroff, son-in-law of Sushilkumar Shinde, former Maharashtra chief minister and ex-Union home minister.

The agency learnt of this commercial deal in a search operation on the premises of Dheeraj Realty and DHFL last week. The search was in connection with a loan of Rs 2,186 crore to Sunblink Real Estate; the latter is under the probe agency’s lens for property dealing with the late Iqbal Memon, an underworld figure.

EHPL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of RKW Developers, wherein DHFL's Dheeraj Wadhawan is promoter and whole-time director.

In May, said ED sources, Essential Hospitality sold a seven-storey commercial building to the promoters of Charak Phrama for Rs 121 crore and further registered the same property as Rs 7 crore. The property is on the western express highway, Sahar, Mumbai. The building has since been leased to Big Tree Entertainment (BookMyShow).

“The enforcement agency is examining all the documents seized during the search operation at eight locations. We are scrutinising the deal structure and whether all checks and balances are in place,” said an ED source.

Sources say it seized jewellery worth Rs 22 crore and a hard disc, besides some documents. An e-mail sent by this publication to DHFL was not answered. Raj Shroff did not respond to messages.

ED sources said the loan sanctioned to Sunblink was diverted to Memon for terrorist financing and creating like assets. On Saturday, Kapil Wadhawan, chairman of DHFL, was questioned by the ED, along with others, on the matter. Dheeraj Wadhawan is learnt to be in hospital and the ED is waiting for his recovery to record a statement. Its sources say he might give more information on the rationale for the loan to Sunblink and related matters. The agency is examining the loan agreement and the collateral provided by Sunblink.

Business Standard