BookMyShow lays off 200 as pandemic batters movie biz

BookMyShow, an online platform for booking movie tickets and entertainment events, has laid off 200 people, cofounder and chief executive Ashish Hemrajani tweeted on Thursday evening.

This is the second major layoff at the company in the last one year as movie theatres largely remain shut and outdoor events have come to a standstill.

In May last year, BookMyshow had to let go of 270 people as the first Covid-19 wave hit the country. Before the pandemic, the Mumbai-based company had around 1,500 people. Now the number has dipped to around 1,000.


“Covid-19 has taught me many lessons & I learnt another one today. As we let go of 200 of the most incredibly talented & performance driven individuals, each & everyone has messaged, thanking me for the opportunity, the love for @bookmyshow, and asking me if they could help,” Hemrajani said in a tweet thread.


He also sought leads for new opportunities for the impacted employees so that they can find new jobs. “They will contribute incredibly to the growth of your wonderful firms. I’m sure we will all come out stronger,” he added.

BookMyShow used to get around 65% of its revenue from movie ticketing. Its pay-per-view movie streaming vertical is still nascent.

“They (BookMyShow) had thought there would be a full recovery by now, but the second wave has changed all of that. The current layoffs would allow them to handle the impact of the pandemic for a year,” a person aware of the matter said.