TALKING POINT: A HEMRAJANI ON CIRQUE DU SOLEIL IN INDIA

CIRQUE DU SOLEIL AND BOOKMYSHOW HAVE A LOT OF SHARED VALUES: ASHISH HEMRAJANI
Canadian entertainment company, Cirque du Soleil, known the world over for it’s magnificent, larger-than-life theatrical productions, will soon be bringing a brand new production to India called ‘Bazzar’. The show has been brought to India by online ticketing and entertainment company BookMyShow and will have Citibank on board as its presenting partner. Ashish Hemrajani, Founder and CEO, BookMyShow tells us more…

HOW THE JOURNEY BEGAN: Circus as an art form was witnessing a decline across the world. But Cirque du Soleil came in, and resurrected it, and in such a beautiful way. It had been a lifetime dream to work with them. The journey started with me meeting folks from Cirque years ago who’ve come to India, understood, loved, appreciated the country and thought about coming here and doing something. We wanted to do this in a manner that was sustainable, inclusive and could grow over the next few years. We started working on this project about two years ago, which has finally culminated into this.

A LOT OF SHARED VALUES: As I met the team and understood them a little more, I realised we have a lot of shared values. How we look at society and communities and how we have built our business is very similar to Cirque’s value systems. From there, things fell into place and it all culminated into us seeking the support of the government of Maharashtra. It led to us visiting the Cirque facilities in Montreal, along with our Chief Minister, Devendra Fadnavis, to get a sense of how things work there.

A TALE OF MANY FIRSTS: This is for the first time that Cirque du Soleil is premiering a production outside Montreal. Also, this is the first time that an Indian sport, Mallakhamb, will be a part of the show. For this, two Indian artists have joined the troupe.