Rajeev Jain, Founder & Director - Rashi Entertainment & Chair - Entertainment Committee, PHDCCI spoke to Ruhail Amin, Senior Editor, exchange4media & BW Businessworld, about the Indian wedding industry’s growth, the licensing issues faced by the industry, his efforts for making wedding tourism for India big and more at the exchange4media Red Carpet Experiential Marketing Summit 2024
Weddings are not just precious moments for couples, their families and loved ones – it is also one of the large revenue generators, contributing to the economy of India. In an insightful discussion, Rajeev Jain, Founder & Director - Rashi Entertainment & Chair - Entertainment Committee, PHDCCI spoke to Ruhail Amin, Senior Editor, exchange4media & BW Businessworld, about the Indian wedding industry’s growth, the licensing issues faced by the industry, his efforts for making wedding tourism for India big and more.
Talking about stepping foot into the wedding space more than two decades back, Jain shed light on the growth of the wedding industry – to the extent that even PM Narendra Modi has recognised the contribution and success of this industry in almost every forum, wherever this topic is discussed. Reminiscing about his roots of setting up Rashi Entertainment in a tent house, he spoke about how wedding event companies and agencies have turned into profit centres.
Larger Than Life Experiences
Outlining the kind of events that are happening, he discussed, “We are doing larger than life experiences. We are doing larger-than-life government events, and corporate events. We did an event at Siri Fort Auditorium about greenery and sustainability. We did an event at the Tihar Jail for 3,000 inmates of rape or murder or decoy. We concluded our anniversary celebration by conducting 28 weddings two months back for underprivileged daughters or companies.
Across every city in India, you will find many event managers. Our associations like EEMA, Wow, ICWF, and IMWF have become larger than life. More than 35 tourism boards around the world are running after us to get weddings in that part of the world. But yes, about what Modi said, we all are trying to have weddings in India. And meeting the Tourism Minister to implement his wedding tourism plans and adopt a method. It’s about like someone said - become rich but make the government of India also rich. It’s a wonderful thought.”
Donning various hats
Explaining about wearing multiple hats, one of them being the chair of Entertainment at PHDCCI and being the founder of the Events & Entertainment Management Association (EEMA), Jain recollects setting up the latter around 15 years back and is being also looked after by the young guys. “EEMA is close to me. As the chair of Entertainment at PHDCCI, I understand that there are good people in the government, they listen and pay heed to you. And with my role at PHDCCI is a good symbol for everyone in this industry of experiential weddings and the events industry.”
As a pioneer of wedding tourism in 2020 and its journey in India, he said, “I thought if there is meditation tourism, then why not wedding tourism?"
Working actively on GST reduction on weddings, he says that a memorandum has been submitted on the same, but it is not an easy task and might take some time.
Touching upon the copyright issues, licenses like the Public Performance License (PPL), the Novex license, and the Indian Performing Right Society (IPRS), he firmly comprehends that it’s a nexus. “The industry is filing cases on these bodies, and these bodies are filing cases on the wedding/music industry talking about the music played and utilised at various events. It is completely illogical. Weddings and social functions are not included in it. We as wedding and event companies are willing to abide by the rules of one licensing body and also to pay a reasonable fee for the music licensing.”
Jain also emphasised treading towards a paycheck technology method and not cash transactions in the weddings and events industry.
Challenges facing the Wedding Industry
Talking about the hurdles and difficulties in the wedding industry, he specified three-pointers – the need for corporatisation of the weddings and events industry, the conversion from cash transactions to usage of paycheck technology in the industry, and the hazardous conditions for the labour working for these industries.
Known for throwing party bashes like his motto of living life king-size, Jain highlighted power dressing with excitement, “Why can't a man look handsome? Why does only a woman have to look beautiful? I can dress up, wear a good coat, watch and a pair of shoes. Why must I wear rugged jeans and a rugged T-shirt and walk into a party? Power dressing is what I'm talking about. And second, when I’m earning the money – it’s definitely about the next generation to sustain it, but also to live your earned money. So why not? I've adopted this for the last 20 years and I try to live my life like that.”
Talking at the exchange4media Red Carpet Experiential Marketing Summit which took place on 27 December, 2024 at the Eros Hotel in the capital, wrapping up the session, Jain rightly pointed out about the wedding industry, “It's a beautiful industry. The money that comes in this industry to us is the money of happiness.”
BW Reporters
She is the Senior Editorial Lead at Businessworld and majorly covers pieces on advertising, marketing, branding and experiential marketing. She writes closely for BW Marketing World and Everything Experiential.
