He has been the President of India's official Sports academy called 'HISA' - the Hero Indian Sports Academy, for the past 3 years.

EVENTFAQS spoke to the man himself about the growth of events industry on the whole and issues pertaining to the business of events.

You have been in the industry for a long time; globally how has the events industry evolved in the last decade?

Two decades ago, the events industry did not even exist. A couple of people started an event company and since then, I have seen a progressive growth in this business. I have seen the industry progressively move from a one man run industry to a cash driven industry, and now, evolved as a serious business. Professionals came together and they ventured into corporate events. In less than a decade, events worth four to five lakhs have turned around to become mega events worth a couple of crores. Events are not events anymore, they are a serious business. The events industry is a sub-part of a much larger industry below the line.

Which are the new categories which will embrace events?

We at PDM position ourselves as India's experiential marketing. We have events, promotions, direct marketing, fashion, television production, etc., all of which come under experiential events. Wizcraft does corporate and entertainment while Encompass does corporate events. We at PDM, do all of them under one umbrella. That's what makes the experiential marketing space much larger than just events. Events are just a sub-part of the much larger umbrella.

Other than a few popular golf and marathon events, we really don't see any other sports events becoming popular or growing?

India is a cricket led country and Marathon is not large, there's just one property that has made it big. It wasn't popular in the first two years, it was successful in the fifth year. It takes time for some events to pick up. For example, IIFA is popular now and that's because one property has been nurtured over the last five to six years. Procam organizes Marathon and it is flourishing as it is doing only two events in a year. All sports events will become popular eventually. Football is bound to become popular, and then there is soccer and cricket which will continue to be popular. We at PDM have launched something called a Walkathon. Internationally, Walkathon is an established sport. The first Indian Walkathon will be done by PDM. It's a multi-city Walkathon across six cities and will happen in September-November 2007. This too will eventually become successful. If one looks at the sports arena, sports will do enormously well in coming years.

Is Percept trying to develop their own properties as opposed to executing events for others?

We have done events that belong to us. We have a new item number show called 'Indian Diva'. We are launching 'The Indian Music Week' now wherein people will participate from across the world. Then there is India Walkathon, partnered with clients but the IP (Intellectual Property) belongs to us. We believe in IP rights in everything that we do. In the fashion arena, we do fashion consultancy as well as fashion awards, while in the entertainment industry we are doing 'The Indian Music Week'.

How do you think the scenario would change if they was no entertainment tax in Maharashtra for live events?

The tax laws have to change. The current holding pattern is that we pay 25%. With 25% of entertainment tax, it's not viable to do live entertainment events. For example, if we do an international concert and we pay the artist a fee which is 100% and 40% as withholding tax with 25% of entertainment tax, then what is the ticket price going to be like? There is clearly a problem that one can see. Tax authorities should understand the industry's problem. We have been in dialogue with them for a long time now. We are trying to explain to them that the more you reduce the tax the more money you make. If the government makes this a tax friendly state, in the long run the country will make much more riches. The solution is revenue share. For example, in the Radio business, the government charged some 11 crore fee and the minute they abolished that and went in for revenue share, the business flourished. Entertainment is becoming an extremely large business in the country. The government has to take these things into consideration and work effectively.

With the success of the Wills India Fashion Week, it was expected that Percept would do more in the Fashion area. How come we haven't seen anything in the event?

Wills Indian Fashion Week is a large event. People don't realize how huge this event is. Compared to the Lakme fashion week, WIFW is enormous. From one event a year it became two events a year. The number of brands have increased. The team who executes the London fashion week is the same team that executes the Wills India fashion week. In doing so, it has taken us one and a half years to establish it. We launched WIFW in the year 2005 but we had been working on it for a year before that. It takes time to execute and plan. While three seasons of the fashion week are over, we are now going to launch fashion awards, a retail fashion week, luxury fair, etc. One will see a number of events roll out beginning in September to the middle of next year.

Where do you see the growth in the event industry coming from in the next few years?

Growth will come from corporate events because corporates are realizing that it's not the event but the event idea, the promotion idea that event agency gives back to the client by taking them abroad or by having some reward programme here which is paying them off better dividends. More and more clients are realizing that the time has come to spend more money. All of this only an event agency can do. The corporate event market is rapidly growing. With time, even ticketed events will grow and if the tax law permits us and we have the right infrastructure, this business is bound to grow.

This country lacks infrastructure. Infrastructure-wise, our city offers us nothing but the Andheri sports complex and MMRDA grounds. Abroad, the kind of infrastructure they have is phenomenal. An agency can just get in with the artist, plug and play. Hydraulic stages exist; seats can be removed with the touch of a button. Sound and lights are in place, roofing can be removed electronically and all of this doesn't exist here.

Infrastructure is the future. We are aggressively looking at infrastructure. We want to take over the existing infrastructure and convert them with better facilities. Infrastructure is a serious agenda for us. We don't have a space constraint at all. The government needs to believe that infrastructure is a serious agenda and if that is taken seriously, then we will take care of the rest right from funding to technology, international participation, etc. Success is sure but it will take time.