India, March 3 -- BookMyShow founder and CEO Ashish Hemrajani took a trip down memory lane during a recent podcast appearance as he related an interesting anecdote behind BookMyShow's launch in 1999. "When people ask me how did BookMyShow happen, I say 'smoking and drinking'," he said with a chuckle during an appearance on The Rockford Circle podcast hosted by Chitrangda Singh.

This intriguing statement has an unexpected backstory rooted in a backpacking trip to South Africa, where a chance moment under a tree and a hazy wine-tasting afternoon would eventually spark the idea that became BookMyShow.

Ashish Hemrajani, 51, revealed that in the late 1990s, he and two of his friends went on a trip to South Africa. Hemrajani was working in ad...