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India’s live entertainment market is entering a new phase, and BookMyShow is at the centre of it. The company has long dominated event ticketing, but the rapid growth of India’s concert economy is attracting new competitors. Eternal has emerged as one of the most formidable challengers after acquiring Paytm Insider in 2024 and launching District, its going-out platform. District generated ₹973 Cr in revenue in FY26, intensifying the battle for India’s growing live entertainment wallet. Amid all the action, BookMyShow has raised its first external cheque from global investment firm KKR. While the company refrained from disclosing the financial particulars of the deal, reports suggest that KKR picked up a minority stake in BookMyShow for about $40-50 Mn. In its first major external funding round in seven years, BookMyShow is said to have secured a pre-money valuation of around $750 Mn and a post-money valuation of roughly $850 Mn. Beyond the numbers, the timing of the fundraise is more telling. BookMyShow’s live events business is growing faster than its online ticketing business. In 2026 alone, the company produced and promoted events like John Mayer-Solo in Mumbai, Lollapalooza India and Def Leppard's India tour. Speaking with Inc42, BookMyShow live events business’ CBO Naman Pugalia said the company has been working on building capabilities across live entertainment over the past two years. It intends to double down on this vertical in the near future as well. “The opportunity is not simply to expand the number of events we do, but to build the depth and scale of the ecosystem that allows India’s live entertainment market to grow sustainably,” Pugalia said. The shift is already visible in BookMyShow’s financials. BookMyShow’s Push Beyond Ticketing BookMyShow’s scale-up has been rapid, with its live events revenue growing more than 30X in three fiscal years, from ₹24.6 Cr in FY22 to ₹237.5 Cr in FY23, ₹455 Cr in FY24 and ₹756 Cr in FY25. The company is yet to disclose its FY26 numbers. Big Tree Entertainment, the parent entity of BookMyShow, reported ₹1,869 Cr in total income in FY25, up from ₹1,430 Cr in FY24. Net profit also rose to ₹192 Cr from ₹109 Cr. While online ticketing continued to be its largest revenue stream at ₹828 Cr, live events revenue jumped 66% YoY to ₹756 Cr. The company’s consolidated top line is expected to scale between 25-30% in FY26. But the sharp rise in live events revenue does not automatically translate into higher margins. Unlike movie ticketing, where BookMyShow primarily facilitates transactions, live events is a capex-heavy business, which requires the company to invest upfront in artist fees, production, venues and marketing. It also carries the risk of an event underperforming. “Movie ticketing is a platform business that has scale built into it, while live promotion is a capability-heavy and risky business,” Pugalia said. The economics, however, improve as the business grows in size. BookMyShow says production costs can be spread across larger and more frequent shows, while repeat properties become cheaper to build as the audience and operating playbook are already in place. That makes live entertainment more expensive to build than movie ticketing. But scale can change the economics. As shows become larger and more frequent, production costs can be spread across multiple events. Repeat properties can also become cheaper to market as audiences become familiar with them. That is one reason BookMyShow is moving further into event production and promotion rather than remaining a ticketing platform. BookMyShow is also using AI beyond ticket discovery and recommendations. The company is applying it to live event operations, where data from gate scans, crowd density, point-of-sale activity and staffing systems can be brought together to identify potential bottlenecks during an event. From Ticketing To Owning The Experience BookMyShow now works across talent and IP acquisition, production, promotion, partnerships, and audience development. Its portfolio includes Lollapalooza India and Bandland, while BookMyShow Live’s BrandLabs has worked with Mumbai Indians on The MIX and with Nykaa on Nykaalanad. Lollapalooza, in particular, shows the long-term nature of the bet. The event is entering its fifth year in India after building the property over multiple editions. “Recurring, owned and co-created entertainment properties are an area of active interest because they build enduring value in a way that one-off promotions do not,” Pugalia said. According to Pugalia, cities such as Guwahati and Ahmedabad, which were once one-show markets, can now support several properties a year. Indian artists, particularly regional language musicians, are becoming a larger part of BookMyShow Live’s business, while comedy, theatre, family entertainment and sports have also grown. The expansion of the market also gives BookMyShow a reason to keep spending on production capabilities, talent partnerships and venues. But there is a risk attached to this expansion. International touring acts remain a major driver of BookMyShow Live, leaving the business exposed to factors outside the company's control, from geopolitical conflicts and travel disruptions to artist schedules, visas, venues and logistics. Looking Beyond Movies BookMyShow is not walking away from its original business, but it is looking beyond movie ticketing for its next growth engine. According to Ashish Saksena, COO, Cinemas at BookMyShow, “BookMyShow Stream continues to complement its cinema business through transactional video-on-demand, with a focus on international and festival-led cinema.” The company is also investing in the core movie-going experience. Noel Curtis, CTO, BookMyShow, said it is working on personalised movie discovery, a simpler booking experience and loyalty programmes. “The broader direction is to make movie-going less like a transaction and more like an end-to-end entertainment experience,” Curtis said. But improving the movie ticketing experience is different from creating a new growth engine. Movie ticketing remains BookMyShow’s larger business, but its growth is ultimately linked to the number and performance of films released, cinema footfalls and ticket prices. Live entertainment, by contrast, can create entirely new demand around artists, festivals and recurring properties. That makes the KKR investment particularly relevant. BookMyShow has not disclosed how the capital will be deployed or how much will go towards live events. Its recent moves, however, offer a clear indication of where the company is placing its bets. The movie business remains the mature base, while live entertainment is where BookMyShow is taking on more costs, more risk and a greater role in the event value chain. Edited By Akshit Pushkarna Creatives: Abhyam Gusai
document fetched 2026-09-04 02:54 · canonical https://inc42.com/features/kkr-backs-bookmyshow-as-live-entertainment-becomes-its-next-growth-engine