Shemaroo started as a commercial book circulating library in 1962 at Warden Road and was founded by Buddhichand Maroo ( B.H. Maroo) and Mr Shetia. The name Shemaroo was the combination of the two surnames Shethia and Maroo. Once it got going, the library had several branches spread across the city in places like Mahalaxmi, Gamdevi, Forjet Street and Marine Drive in a matter of time. “This was till my elder brother Raman Maroo joined the business in early 1969 after which he further expanded the lot of libraries in places like Napean Sea Road and Bombay Gymkhana catering to South Bombay’s top notch families, “ says Atul Maroo, Jt. Managing Director, Shemaroo Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.

Later in 1978, the first video recorder made its entry into India. Very few people had VCRs and colour TVs then. “It then struck us to start a video renting outlet which was thought to be a niche concept then, for very few people would want to buy a VCD . I joined the business in 1979 by when we were continuing with our branches at Warden Road, Napean Sea Road and Bombay Gymkhana mainly for books and VCDs. In 1982, when the Asiad Games were to be held in the country, the Union Government came out with a scheme by which one could import Colour TV with a minimum basic duty and that was the time when Doordarshan also started beaming colour-ridden programmes for a certain amount of time. It was the time when video also started getting popular as a home entertainment because till then the Indian consumer was extremely starved of entertainment because of non-availability of regular programmes by the National Broadcaster,” avers Maroo.

In late ‘84, Shemaroo started acquiring domestic video rights to publish Indian films in the domestic market “and by ‘85-’86, we had catalogues of reputed film banners of BR Chopra, Yash Chopra, FC Mehra and many other production houses apart from other blockbusters. As time progressed, we started our recording studio in late ‘86 for the duplication of VHS (Video Home System) at Prabhadevi Industrial Estate. This was the time when the home video industry was at its peak. Between 1990 and ‘92 when satellite TV channels like STAR and Zee started to beaming in India which also had the cable TV in the country mushrooming, the Home Video Industry reached a plateau in sales because of free-to-air channels and also cable channels catering to pirated VHSs, “ adds Maroo.

In 1995, Shemaroo entered into a joint venture with Sony Entertainment Television, which currently offers channels like SAB TV, SET Max, Sony Pix etc. Since the physical format sale of VHS movie cassettes was getting stagnant, there was a shift in the technology from cassettes to discs in 1996-’97. “Ours was the first company to launch Video CD (VCD) along with Sony and the Thakral Group, “says Maroo. Technology was taking rapid leaps and again in1999, the format changed from VCD to DVD (Digital Video Disc) that catered to the MPEG 1 & 2 format. Though the DVD format was getting popular, VCD was affordable because the price gap between VCD and DVD was vast. In the same period, Shemaroo started its post-production unit and on January 26, 2001, we moved to Andheri.”

Till 1996, B.H. Maroo took an active part in business but some unforeseen happening forced him to change tracks. “The day we were celebrating the opening of our new office, nature struck hard bringing about a severe earthquake in Kutch. My brother was so shaken by the disaster that he decided to leave for the affected area saying, ‘My motherland needs me at this hour and I cannot turn my back to the call.’ I take pride in saying that under B.H.’s able guidance two towns in Kutch has been rehabilitated and a charitable hospital has been established in Bhojay, a small town in Kutch in 2000,” says a beaming Maroo.

Shemaroo Entertainment has made its name in the video distribution and is dealing in satellite/terrestrial/pay TV rights, licensing cable television rights and distribution of Indian films in overseas territories in both theatrical and home video sectors and has been constantly on the lookout for new avenues in the entertainment sector. Going by the practice, Shemaroo established a division called Shemaroo Films in 2004. So far the production wing has produced three Hindi, two Marathi and one animated film. Two other films are soon to be released back to back, they being Ghatotkach releasing in May and Mere Baap...Pehle Aaap. Apart from that, there are a few projects in the pipeline.

Shemaroo is currently in a strong position in the home video sector for Hindi, English, foreign languages-by way of World Cinema, and regional films like Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi and Bengali. It also commands a good market in non-film content like sports, spiritualism (Osho, Deepak Chopra etc), kids and general interest etc. Other strengths are the song compilations available on home video. According to Maroo, no other entity come anywhere near Shemaroo in this segment.