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Business News/ Specials / Tech@work/  We want to take online games to the next level: Shripal Morakhia
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We want to take online games to the next level: Shripal Morakhia

The chairman of Smaaash wants children to get off the couch and play digital cricket

Shripal Morakhia, chairman of Smaaash, a Mumbai-based sports-centric immersive and interactive entertainment centre. (Shripal Morakhia, chairman of Smaaash, a Mumbai-based sports-centric immersive and interactive entertainment centre.)Premium
Shripal Morakhia, chairman of Smaaash, a Mumbai-based sports-centric immersive and interactive entertainment centre.
(Shripal Morakhia, chairman of Smaaash, a Mumbai-based sports-centric immersive and interactive entertainment centre.)

Mumbai: In an age of online and mobile gaming, Shripal Morakhia, chairman of Smaaash, a Mumbai-based sports-centric immersive and interactive entertainment centre, wants children to get off the couch and play digital cricket, blending the video game with live action. After selling his stake in ACK Media, Morakhia wanted to create something with a “cool quotient" that children could relate to. In an interview to Mint last week, Morakhia spoke about the technology behind the entertainment centre and plans to synergize online and offline gaming. Edited excerpts:

What inspired you to build Smaaash?

I used to run a comic book company called Amar Chitra Katha (ACK). When I revived ACK in 2010, I thought every mother would buy (the comics), but selling Amar Chitra Katha was the most difficult job for me. And it didn’t sell because of a missing cool quotient. So I decided to do something aspirational for children, sold my stake in Amar Chitra Katha and started Smaash.

What is the unique selling proposition of Smaaash?

Tell us more about the technology.

When you play a golf simulator, you basically hit the ball and the technology takes over and tracks where the ball will go—that is, 180 degrees. We have developed a 360-degree simulator for the first time. So, this is no mere bowling machine. Our precise technology times the bowling exactly, in sync with the bowling action of the cricketer you are facing on screen. The spectators, cheering, live commentary and of course the international legends such as Sachin Tendulkar that gamers face—all combined bring out the real experience. Our high frame per second video cameras are strategically positioned to track fielding positions, runs scored, wickets, leg before decisions, etc. Our superior tracking device not only monitors the ball and your batting action, it allows one to watch replays, too, making it as good as real cricket.

Have you imported this technology?

This whole concept was ours. Sachin Tendulkar, also our brand ambassador and a partner in this project, gave us a lot of inputs and a lot of the technology is supervised by him. We have also worked with a lot of colleges and institutions to develop soccer games. This soccer game is being developed for us by a German vendor, so we work with independent vendors, give them an idea, and whoever gives us the most viable proposition we work with them.

How much have you invested so far? And what’s your business model?

We have invested 20 crore so far in the technology and another 26 crore to build the Smaaash centre. Overall, we have a capex of 100 crore spread over the next two years. The average rate is 500 for a game, a little more on weekends, and paying that much for cricket would give you seven-eight overs of a game. And kids spend between 700-800 on an average here. But our business model revolves around sponsorships. So we don’t invest unless 50-70% of our project cost is met by sponsorships and that is rule No. 1. This centre started breaking even for us in August this year.

Are you also are planning to develop synergies between online and offline gaming?

Absolutely. What we want to do is take popular online games to the next level. For example, you take a battlefield game, and take it from joysticks and monitors to a real gun and you are put on a 360-degree globe, and have a jacket for protection. That’s where the whole game builds up—you see a soldier you aim and shoot and if you get shot, your jacket vibrates. Similarly, we are in the process of developing many fantasy games based on augmented reality.

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Published: 14 Aug 2013, 11:58 PM IST
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