BookMyShow facilitates pan-India vaccination drive for entertainment, event industry members

Ticket booking platform BookMyShow (BMS) on Tuesday said it has undertaken a pan-India community vaccination drive for members of the entertainment industry, corporate India and residential societies, and covered over 1.45 lakh people. The initiative, which started earlier this month, is being conducted in partnership with hospitals and healthcare facilities across cities, a statement said. It also provides the complete logistics, technology and manpower support, access validation and on-ground infrastructure assistance to medical staff and consumers to book their slots, it added. Its partners include Apollo Clinics, Medica Superspeciality Hospital, AMRI Hospitals, Peerless Hospital and Techno India DAMA Healthcare & Medical Centre. Also, BookASmile - the philanthropic initiative of BookMyShow - is working towards the inoculation of 1,111 underprivileged artists from low-income communities in the entertainment industry, whose livelihoods have been adversely impacted due to the pandemic. It has collaborated with Mumbai-based NGO Accha Karo Foundation for this drive. “BMS vaccination initiative not only empowers the community with the added convenience through accessible and easier vaccine booking but also uses the platform’s technology and infrastructure strength for efficient inventory management and reduction of vaccine wastage,” the statement said. Accurate allocation of stock basis pre-registrations along with the firm’s experienced event operation skills helps facilitate smoother inoculation drives, avoiding any delays, shortages and crowding at private COVID Vaccination Centres, it added. BMS has organised independent vaccination drives at its Mumbai office for the employees and families of various events industry firms, including partners, vendors, promoters, artists, and organisers across movies and the live entertainment industry. Employees and family members of several media and entertainment firms, including PVR Cinemas, Percept, Balaji Telefilms, Motley Theatre Group, 70 Event Media Group (70 EMG), Hungama Digital Media and Production Crew to name a few, have been inoculated through the BMS vaccination drive, it added. In its first phase, BookMyShow has undertaken vaccination drives for consumers across Mumbai and Kolkata. Apart from Mumbai, the entertainment industry inoculation drive is likely to be extended to BookMyShow’s Delhi, Bangalore, and Hyderabad offices. Going forward, BMS will enable API integration with the CoWIN app to offer discovery, search, authentication, booking of vaccine slots as also certificate access across cities on the BookMyShow website and app. BMS COO (Live Entertainment and Venues) Anil Makhija said over the past 15 months, the pandemic has had a devastating impact on India’s entertainment industry. “As the sector readies to bounce back and prepare for a strong recovery cycle, we are glad to be able to play our part and support the government’s effort to fight the pandemic by undertaking this widespread vaccination drive to help vaccinate the entertainment industry along with its performers and artists as also the larger community of consumers and corporate India,” he added.