COVID-19 impact: BookMyShow lays off 200 employees as biz takes hit

BookMyShow, a platform to book movie tickets as well as tickets for entertainment events, has laid off 200 employees. This is the second major layoff at the company since it gave the pink slip to 270 people in the first wave of COVID-19. Co-founder and chief executive Ashish Hemrajani tweeted on Thursday that 200 of the "most incredibly talented & performance driven individuals" were laid off, and urged people across industries to give him leads on vacancies.

"COVID19 has taught me many lessons & I learnt another one today. As we let go of 200 of the most incredibility talented & performance driven individuals, each & everyone has messaged, thanking me for the opportunity, the love for @bookmyshow and asking me if they could help 'me' in any way possible. Now that's character. And if there is a 'Unicorn' of wealth then this is it - the character of people you choose to surround yourself with (sic)," said Hemrajani.

The BookMyShow co-founder said that in the course of the last 15 months, the company has helped around 10 lakh COVID-19 impacted people. "These 200 folks were handpicked & curated over years and had surrounded themselves with the highest values of culture, performance and empathy," he said.

Hemrajani said that he wanted to do the 'right thing' and 'find them a new home, where a new journey can begin.' "So if you have leads, please DM me & we will do the needful. They will contribute incredibly to the growth of your wonderful firms. I'm sure we will all come out stronger," said the chief executive.

The company makes 65 per cent of its revenues from movie ticketing. But in the past one and a half year, movie halls have mostly remained shut, with no big ticket release. BookMyShow has started its pay-per-view movie streaming service but it is still at a very early stage.

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