The Great Mall of Hyderabad Gets Adventurous

The Great Mall of Hyderabad: The Royal Indian Shopping Adventure is becoming an adventure in more ways than one. Albeit different kinds of adventures for the participants, the shoppers and visitors, and the organisers -- Ogilvy Live and Department of Tourism. With lack of international participation, the crowds minus the shopping spirit and the distance of the main venue at NAC seem to be making the success of the mall a subject of hot debate, but the crowds seem to be lapping up whatever's being provided, especially considering how starved the city is in terms of entertainment.

The Tata Cellular Freedom Zone at the Necklace Road, one of the venues, is drawing good crowds at its adventure sports area and food courts. Wanderlust, a Delhi-based company into adventure sports in collaboration with a German company has brought here Bungee Jumping and Artificial Rock Climbing.

The thrilling jump is from approximately 125 feet, each jump priced at Rs 300. The city crowds not totally new to the sport, are lapping it up. There have been 370 jumps in 15 days, with a surprising enthusiasm seen in women. The first three jumps were by women and the ratio of men to women is 65:35. On one Sunday alone, there were 102 jumps. The thrill is getting popular with children and teenagers too, as well with the middle-aged.

The artificial rock climbing is being done on a rock surface made of ceramic reaching upto a height of 35 feet. It has specified zones with handholds and footholds at intervals for easy and hard climb according to the option of the climber. The climbs are priced at Rs 75 each. And about 150 visitors have done it.

What's the most popular is however the relatively safer paraballooning, brought by city-based Unik Inflatables, which exports such equipment. Each ride costs Rs 200 and about 500 people have already taken off on the balloon.

For those not so adventurous, there are options of shopping at the stalls and eating out at the variety of foodcourts. And most feet seem to be treading that way. Despite the entry fees of Rs 25 for adults and Rs 15 for children, during weekends, the venues are getting filled up with visitors, though there might be very few shoppers, like a visitor from Mumbai remarked.

"I was under the impression that it's a shopping festival like Dubai, but I hardly see any shopping bags around," said Dhanraj W, a PR consultant. But, he like many others, was impressed by the musical nites and the discotheque put up at the NAC. Weekends saw performances by Toby Fernandes and his troupe from Mumbai, the three-member Joshiley band from Delhi, and Preety and Pinky duo of "Piya Piya" fame from Mumbai again. With dancing banned in Hyderabad, the crowds seemed to love the opportunity to tap their feet at the NAC.

The kids' playpens and boating rides were some other major attractions. Half-way through the festical NAC averaged walkins of around 15,000 a day and 75,000 to a lakh during weekends. The small but lively venue of Necklace Road is witnessing 12,000 to 25,000 on weekdays and weekends respectively, while Shilparamam too is getting some part of the NAC visitors, says an Ogilvy representative.

But, relatively poor turnouts during weekdays has had some effects with organisers getting into trouble. The Rs 15 entry fee for children was scrapped following protests by some stall owners at NAC who were closing shop thanks to poor footfalls. Even police was reportedly called in to control the agitated stall-owners when the situation was said to be turning sour.

However, Ogilvy Live officials, which has put in Rs 18 crores in the event, is trying to put up a brave face and countering criticism from many quarters, especially media, with optimism. "We could have easily postponed the festival thanks to the international participants backing out due to WTC attacks and the war situation, but we went ahead and have made a base for the next festival. We are happy with the kind of response we have got. At least Hyderabad has come onto the world map with the festival," says Gautam Mukerjea, head of Ogilvy Live.

"More than Rs 10 crores worth shopping has been done at NAC alone, and these are estimates just from coupons alone redeemed against Rs 250 plus worth of purchases per coupon. There have been purchases that may not have been redeemed against coupons, being of value lesser than Rs 250. And the shopping figures are also those excluding the shopping done at the 1,000 retail shops --the Great Mall official retail participants across the city," he says.

What's more they are keen on putting up the next year show too. Though the current contract is only for this year's show, the team is hopeful that the state government's Tourism Department, coorganisers, will choose it as partners next year too. "We would want to build the annual fest as an Ogilvy Live brand," Mukherjea says.

The company has already secured sponsorships worth Rs 6.5 crores from various companies and Rs 4-5 crores from participant stall rentals. It expects an overall Rs 7-8 crores from entry fee and ticketing, with an estimated 1.5 million people visting the mall by the close of the festival, ending November 14.