Wonderla: Roller coaster ride in largest amusement park

The amusement park industry in India is more than two decades old but it is still at a very nascent stage. India's stint with amusement park started with the opening up of Appu Ghar, the first amusement park which opened in 1984 in the capital.

Major expansion happened through the 1990s with the opening of Essel World in Mumbai, Nicco Park  in Chennai and the Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad. According to a CARE research report on the Indian amusement park industry, the sector is capital as well as land intensive and requires as much as 40 acres to setup an amusement park. 5 fitness trends to watch for As India wakes up to the consumption boom, huge capacities are coming up across western, northern and southern parts of the country, near metros as well as on major highways. Tapping into this nascent yet lucrative sector is 34-year old Arun Chittilappilly. Chittilappilly’s journey began in 2000 in Kochi with the ventures first amusement park Veegaland, now operates two of India’s largest amusement parks under the name Wonderla. With 1.1 million thrill seekers visiting both the Kochi and Bangalore parks annually Wonderla achieved revenue of Rs 115 crore last year. Young Turks met up with Arun at Wonderla in Bangalore to find out how he makes your lives more fun. Direct your GPS navigator to lead you to fun and as you leave the hustle and bustle of the city you will find the perfect getaway to pamper your inner child. Located 28 kilometers from Bangalore, Wonderla is India’s largest amusement park. Setup by 34 year old industrial engineer and facilities design expert Arun Chittilappilly in 2005 with an initial investment of an Rs 109 crore the park is a sequel to the Veegaland amusement park in Kochi. Setup by Arun’s father in 2000, a lot has changed since Arun came on board in 2003 including the name of the park itself. Wonderla Bangalore has 55 land and water rides including the skywheel, India’s tallest Ferris Wheel rides. While the sky is the limit for this young entrepreneur he tells us why he chose to entertain people for a living. Chittilappilly: Towards the end of my studies in Australia I decided to come back and start Wonderla because Veegaland in Kochi had just started about one and a half years when I was studying. It was a tremendous success so my father was eagerly looking for my help to setup something like this in another city because we saw that there was a big demand for something like this. Pretty soon we had decided that we will be moving to Bangalore and starting something here so that’s how Wonderla came about. While it is easy to loose oneself in the electric atmosphere at Wonderla, managing a theme park is not all fun and games. Safety and security are keys to a successful operation. So, Wonderla Bangalore has provided 2500 lockers so that customers are not weighed down by their belongings. A first aid facility and ambulance are also on standby for medical emergencies. Wonderla is the only park chain in India to use reverse osmosis for treating water in its many pools. It also boasts of being the only one to use solar heated water so you won’t have to miss out on water rides on chilly winter mornings. And with rides being the show stopper the right manufacturing channels are key. Chittilappilly: We have one which is imported machinery which we import from very reputed manufacturers from Europe. So, those are our most expensive machines. About 30 percent of our machines are like that, imported.  Then we have machines which are made by ourselves. We have a very strong ride R&D and ride manufacturing division. So we design and build our own machines.
The remaining 30 percent of the rides which includes water slides is outsourced from Indian vendors. Narration: A large share of Wonderla’s revenue is generated through ticket sales with food and souvenir sales adding to its kitty. With revenue of Rs 115 crore in 2012 Chittilappilly has to quadruple the number by 2016. Wonderla parks have entertained over a 150 lakh visitors over the past decade. Arun’s vision of creating large islands of fun is coming together but the journey hasn’t been without its obstacles. Chittilappilly: The first challenged I faced was to convince everybody in Kochi that we will be building a much bigger park and justifying that investment for a city like Bangalore was my first challenge. Also using the latest machinery and all these advanced rides and all that which were very expensive at that time was another challenge. Setting up something like this in an another city always poses its own set of challenges because we bought this property outside Bangalore and then getting the local governments and the villagers to accept us their neighbors was also a big challenge. Getting the local community to buy into the idea was critical and so he has ensured he hires locally. Having stabilised operations at the Bangalore park, Arun is set to kick expansion plans into gear. The ventures latest offering the Wonderla resort can save visitors the 28 kilometers drive back into the city and has helped the company rake-in an additional Rs 10 crore. Arun now plans to mirror the strategy at the park in Kochi. Looking to raise Rs 500 crore through an initial public offering (IPO) or private equity players, he hopes to woo thrill seekers in Hyderabad and Chennai by 2015.