Often when we are too busy trying to make ends meet, dealing with problems that life throws at us, a smile definitely can do wonders. As Mother Teresa once said, “We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.” At BookASmile, we are all about creating smiles for miles. We are the social initiative of BookMyShow conceptualized a few years ago with a vision to use our platform to give back to the society.
BookASmile – The Journey
We wanted to do something distinctive and revolutionary in the charity space by lending our arm to an area where we already have a strong foothold. We wanted to provide opportunities to those from the disadvantaged sections of society to experience a world of entertainment, music, theatre, arts, sports and culture, things that you and I usually take for granted. This stemmed from the observation that there are already plenty of brilliant organizations that are working towards other critical areas such as health, nutrition, and education but we felt that entertainment and culture was something as important, and perhaps largely untapped. With eyes set on achieving this, BookASmile took flight in November 2014 from where it catapulted to where it is today.
BookASmile is only limited by its imagination. Initially, BookASmile primarily worked within Mumbai and had a few liaisons with NGO’s outside Maharashtra. Over the next one year, through research, referrals and showcasing the work that we did, we connected and liaised with many more NGO’s and organisations pan India. Today, we are looking to grow and expand to different geographies in India and wish to impact lives and change perspectives of people residing everywhere, from big cities to towns and villages including kids, senior citizens, physically/mentally challenged individuals or even the armed forces. We actively work with over 125 NGO’s and have successfully impacted over half a million lives.
It just takes Re.1 to make a difference in someone’s life
BookASmile believes in the ‘Power of One’; that it just takes Re. 1 to make a difference in someone’s life. The users of BookMyShow across 400 cities have been actively contributing, anywhere from Re. 1 to Rs. 5, to BookASmile every time they transact on our platform. Alternately, if anyone wants to donate larger amounts, they can simply visit our website and make a donation. To increase the BookASmile corpus, we have also begun to bring about different strategic changes to fundraising which has helped us scale vertically as well.
We, at BookASmile are investing a lot of energies to create an inviting community to ensure that the less fortunate sections of society can be privy to opportunities and experiences from across genres like Sport, Cinema, Arts, Theatre & Music.
BookASmile also endeavors to work towards preservation of our illustrious heritage regards art, culture, nature conservation and also creating an opportunity for the local tribes to revive and showcase folk music lost in time.BookASmile’s mantra closely combined with the Ranthambore Festival’s vision seeks to provide a platform to artists, conservationists, writers and thinkers to initiate a discourse on India’s musical and environmental past, present and future.
BookASmile supports Ranthambore Festival
Envisioned by the NGO Puqaar Foundation and supported by BookASmile, the upcoming Ranthambore Festival seeks to be a platform to honour Rajasthan’s little-known, world class musicians and celebrate the singular music traditions that have made Rajasthan synonymous with Indian folk music around the world. This is where BookASmile identified with them and is delighted to extend its support to this initiative. We believe that this festival has the ability to initiate and drive relevant as well as interesting conversations that will positively impact our future. The ticket entry is free and the festival is open to all to promote the spirit of inclusion.
At BookASmile, we are always looking for people, ideas, initiatives and causes to support. We have charted out an unconventional path for us but we remain to be absolutely determined in creating as many smiles as we possibly can.
