When business is fun

In the booming entertainment industry, funplexes are spending big bucks on hi-tech amusement machines, writes Anurag Yadav

Sanjay Arora was an official at the Appu Ghar in Delhi for more than a decade and a half. He says, "It’s amazing how I brought up a family doing an unconventional job — helping kids have fun at rides and swings."

Today the street corner jhoolawalla is in the company of the funplexes that spend lakhs so that children and even adults can have fun on the wonder machines. And of course, pay for the heady pleasures.

Video games were one of the first generation of new amusement machines that appeared in India. They had kids flying airplanes, racing cars and bikes and shooting down monsters with levers and buttons, making the video parlour owners see green and the parents red.

It was Delhi’s Appu Ghar in the 1970s that triggered the trend. Before that, while Dussehra, Diwali, Christmas and the odd weekend fair did bring the swings and the giant wheel, the business of amusement remained in its infancy. It was the 1990s that ushered the big boom.

Over the past few years the shapes, sizes, applications and cost of amusement machines have increased manifold. It has turned into a multi-crore industry.

Colourful range

According to Bijoy Sahu, manager of Delhi’s Cosmos Entertainment Company, "We have been in the business for many years and most amusement parks use our machines. There is a colourful range to choose from. For every machine made in India, there are a dozen imported ones available. Most of them are brought to India as semi-knocked down forms. These are then re-assembled here."

While many industrial houses are looking at the amusement business with interest, some of the main buyers of these hi-tech contraptions — apart from those setting up amusement parks — are resorts and schools. Today weddings in even middle class localities have machines or inflatable swings and see-saws to attract kids.

Says Rajeev Sud, a Delhi wedding planner, "I have been in the marriage business for more than a decade. The focus has shifted from providing just chairs and carpets to arranging elaborate game machines for kids."

"We look at the design very seriously. An amusement machine is a mechanical and electrical contraption. It has to provide long time service and above all, be safe. An electrically operated Octopus with cups on its tentacles comes at a price range of nearly Rs 20 lakh," says Sahu.

Recently there has been a rise in the demand of water-related parks and machines. The Wet n Wild Resort and Fun World near Delhi and the Essel World near Mumbai have become the weekend haunt for children. Waterslides, waves and paddle boats are no longer the only source of aquatic pleasure. Today there are wave-producing machines that create the illusion of an artificial seaside. The water parks in Bangalore and Chennai are using these machines.

"An amusement machine should not look like a machine," says Vijay Kukreja who supplies inflatable slides to restaurants, cineplexes and shopping malls.

Another extension of amusement machines can be seen at upmarket music shops like Planet M. The listening posts or video jukeboxes at such music shops are a big hit and go a long way in promoting music sales.

Going by industry estimates the volume of business is increasing in geometric progression. More so because the scope of entertainment is being redefined with increasing demands for recreation. In malls and office complexes, there are large spaces with attached cafes where one can relax to soothing music during lunch break. Video games and jukeboxes are helping make the workplace a more friendly. Be it the new-age juke boxes and video games or the roller-coasters and the swing machines in fun parks, the fact is that the amusement industry is here to stay. — NF