A file picture of a programme organised by Fun Adda in Pune. Similar events will soon be held in Jamshedpur

Adventure indoors is no oxymoron.

Some four years ago, a few friends from the first batch of XLRI’s Entrepreneurship Development Centre in Jamshedpur teamed up to start an adventure tourism consultancy Odyssey Wonders.

This year, two of the former XLRI students associated with Odyssey Wonders, Chandan Thakur and Prativa Gupta, launched Fun Adda, a company that specialises in indoor adventures for young professionals and adults, now running in Pune, Hyderabad and Bangalore. Jamshedpur will be their next port of call.

For Fun Adda, Chandan and Prativa joined hands with Dileep Nadimpalli, an entrepreneur based in Hyderabad.

The concept is going places. Fun Adda started out at Seasons Mall in Pune this January. Soon afterwards, Fun Adda came to Hi-Tech City, Hyderabad. Recently, on August 22, it was launched in Bangalore’s posh Koramangala locality.

Fun Adda offers indoor paintball, mini golf course, shooting, zorbing, bouncy jumping, foam party, bull rides, pool, snooker, chess, indoor wall climbing, lasertag and archery, to name some. And, properties are huge, 15,000sqft in Pune, 20,000sqft in Hyderabad and 10,000sqft in Bangalore.

“We want people to take fun breaks in their busy schedules. So, our idea was to introduce entertainment to adults in a mall. We have seen that gaming zones in malls are geared towards kids with a bowling alley and simple games. So, in a typical family outing, a child will enjoy the games, but his dad and mom will get bored. College-goers or colleagues hanging out have hardly any entertainment options,” Chandan, who is the director of Fun Adda, said.

He pointed out to the huge opportunity. “Urban India needs an entertainment model for grown-ups,” he stresses, referring to Fun Adda as India’s first indoor adventure entertainment centre.

Chandan said they tasted success with Odyssey Wonders, which focuses on outdoor activities. “Odyssey Wonders, which started its base from Jamshedpur, now has an annual turnover of Rs 1 crore. Paintball and zorbing have been huge hits from inception,” he said, adding that apart from himself and Prativa, their XLRI classmate Shadab Akhtar is a part of the first venture.

Prativa added that Odyssey Wonders and Fun Adda had distinct entities but a lot in common. “We like to think we are promoting a culture of sports, fitness, mental and physical agility in the cities where we have our footprints. Today, people are stressed out. They need to chill out but meaningfully. I guess that’s where we come in, outdoors and indoors,” she said.

She added that they were sure Fun Adda would do well. “We are promoting it. There are videos on YouTube and digital promotions on social networking sites. Plus, word-of-mouth recommendations work,” she said. “If anyone has a good time at Fun Adda and suggests friends to try it out, we feel great.”

What do they hope from Jamshedpur? “We are XLRI alumni so Jamshedpur is special,” Prativa smiled, adding they were eyeing a place at the upcoming Centenary Mall in Bistupur.