Flight of fantasy

The rapid rise of pop culture has surprisingly not missed India. Growing up in the fictional world of comics such as Batman, Phantom, and Tintin, Harry Potter, Asterix, Simpson, Batman, and Joker, one shares a nostalgic bond with these dramatic personas. The latest flagship pop-culture entertainment store, nestled at the entertainment hub of the city in Todi Mills in Lower Parel, is a unique destination created to celebrate the love for pop culture in the city. A brainchild of two fanboys Sunil and Satish Khemchandani, the Entertainment Store is a one-stop destination for city audience to explore and own merchandise of their favourite character or show.

“We understood that the comic book world is something that would stay with everyone and will always have a deeper impact in their lives,” says Satish, who himself is fascinated with these characters since his childhood and reveals that he and his brother were introduced to the pop culture during their studies abroad. “Through this brand, we are reliving our childhood and celebrating our passion for TV shows, movies, video games and comics,” he adds.

Having been exposed to the western culture of comic con, public screenings and movie marathons, the fanatic duo realised the lack of fan merchandise stores in India and that consumers would have to look for stores aboard. This encouraged them to design a unique space where the Indian audience can explore their beloved characters. “We observed the need for one-stop destination for all the merchandise of these characters and so we launched this store,” he informs.

From Harry’s wand and Darth Vader’s lightsabre to AC/DC’s poster, Entertainment Store focuses on the characters as opposed to the category. The store showcases a range of original merchandise from the most popular TV shows, movies to video games, music and comics ranging from games to toys and apparels, figurines, posters and even knick-knacks. “There is a bulk of audience that has grown up watching these movies and TV shows and they are passionate about the pop-culture. This place is for all those people,” insists Satish.

Though the outlet has a number of companies from old classics to hot favourites, the store also showcases a range of merchandise of classic cult movies like The Godfather to favourite TV shows like The Big Bang Theory, Friends, Game of Thrones. However, Disney and Marvel are the biggest collaborations so far and the duo has recently collaborated with Tintin as the only official selling partners in India. “We want to set up a whole section dedicated to Disney and we already have Marvel section in Mumbai,” informs Satish who also reveals that he is a die heart fan of Tintin.

Spread across 1600-square feet, the store provides colourful escapism; and has created a space to let a person rejoice in their fandom. The outlet is the Robin to your Batman, the Bucky to your Captain America or even the Ron to your Harry. When asked if they are planning to set up merchandise for Indian characters, the duo sound apprehensive owing to the underexplored market scenario. However, their last range of Bahubali merchandise did well in the market. “In India, this whole merchandising business is underexplored and very haphazard. There is no proper way and it is very disorganised,” asserts the 37-year-old entrepreneur. While the Indian market in the past has seen some of the Indian movie characters like Dabang, Rajnikanth of Robot, Satish informs that they also didn’t; do well and the stores have randomly been closed. “The market is underrated and people are reluctant on trying new characters,” he elucidates and winks saying, “That’s why there is an opportunity for a store like ours.”

The Entertainment Store in the city is the fourth franchise followed by similar stores in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Surat, and Pune. “When we started the first store in Bengaluru we experienced an overwhelming response, so post that we have been gradually spreading our wings,” reveals the owner and adds that Mumbai is a really interesting market and due to film industry there is a massive market for pop culture store. “Mumbai has a good market and we felt that organically we have to grow into some other metro cities so the city was always on the list,” he concludes.