Coldplay Or “Soldplay” – The Art Of Scalping Tickets!

PICTURE COURTESY : MOJO TIMES

Coldplay’s upcoming Mumbai concerts in January 2025 have created a massive furore on social media, especially after BookMyShow opened its ticket window. The band, known for their spectacular live performances, will play at the DY Patil Sports Stadium in Navi Mumbai on January 18, 19, and 21. Despite the addition of a third show, the ticket frenzy left many fans frustrated, with tickets selling out almost instantly.

Chaos ensued as fans struggled to secure tickets, only to find them available on unofficial platforms at exorbitant prices. Tickets on re-selling sites like Viagogo are reportedly being offered for as high as Rs 9 lakh plus, leading to accusations of a scam.

The million dollar question is that how did a huge number of tickets fell into the kitty of Viagogo which is selling them on exorbitant prices!

This raises serious questions on the ticketing process adopted by BookMyShow, for those who missed out on the show despite being in the queue for hours together, are terming this as "scalping."

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www.indianpsu.com sent an email to Ashish Hemrajani, CEO and Co-founder of Bigtree Entertainment Private Limited, which operates BookMyShow, only to receive a stereo-typed reply which states –

“Today is a landmark moment in India’s live entertainment history as we saw true fandom, overwhelming love and incredible excitement on BookMyShow for Coldplay’s Music Of The Spheres World Tour 2025 in India. With 13 million (1.3 crore) fans eager to get tickets and logged in, emotions ran high—some celebrating while most others were left disappointed.

At BookMyShow and BookMyShow Live, we’ve worked hard to ensure every fan had a fair chance to secure tickets, providing clear, step-by-step booking guides and maintaining transparent communication through all our official channels. We implemented a queueing system to manage the overwhelming demand and addressed issues caused by suspicious and malicious traffic within minutes, causing a brief delay, but ensuring minimal disruption for genuine fans. Due to the unprecedented demand, a third Mumbai show was added shortly thereafter, which also received a fantastic response.

To those who got tickets, congratulations! For those who missed out, we understand your disappointment and are committed to bringing memorable entertainment experiences your way.”

www.indianpsu.com send another query to BookMyShow asking them how did tickets in huge numbers reach www.viagogo.com where they are being sold at exorbitant prices. We asked – “How is your ticketing process clean and transparent ?”

A half-baked reply from BookMyShow stated – “Hi Vivek- sharing our official stance on ticket scalping below”

Another pertinent question which arises here is that whether BookMyShow is calling Viagogo, a scammer, and if yes on what ground? Are tickets being sold at exorbitant prices by Viagogo 'invalid"? If yes, whether BookMyShow has taken any legal action against Viagogo?

Artists’ concert tickets in India sold out within minutes of going live on official booking sites like Zomato and BookMyShow, were quickly made available on Viagogo at a much higher resale price. Many tickets are still available on the website, which has emerged as a common link between high-in-demand event tickets.

www.indianpsu.com has also sent email queries to Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and their reply on this query of scalping of tickets is awaited.

More than a reply, www.indianpsu.com would rather prefer a deep probe into this by an agency not less than the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and or the Enforcement Department (ED) to probe as to how Indians are left high and dry whereas tickets reach in bulk to websites not operating on Indian soil….