Mystery room with a phew!

Being gamers, fans of mystery novels and adventure activities, their curiosity got the best of them. “On our trip to Koh Samui, we were looking for out of the ordinary and off-beat adventure activities and came across these ‘Mystery Rooms.’ Intrigued by the concept, we decided to check it out and ended up getting addicted to it,” says Venkat. Back in a city that is ruled by a combination of food, booze and movies to keep you entertained, the husband-wife duo decided that this was something that they’d quit their jobs for. And in under two months, they’d not just had over 300 people delve into an adventure of a lifetime, but have now charged to being the second best thing to do in Bengaluru according to TripAdvisor!

Different from the bastions of gaming - the PlayStations, Xboxes and the Wiis, these mystery rooms may be old school, but is precisely the reason why they are top drawer. Best played by two or more people, this adventure finds you trapped inside a room with an hour to escape, unearthing clues, examining unassuming objects and discarding decoys to successfully make it out in time. “You can’t laze through one of these things. You find something not by punching keywords into a search bar, but by hunting and thinking things through,” says Nishita, who is a financial analyst by day.

With even strangers having to become a team to tackle obstacles as the clock ticks down, it’s not just families with kids, gamers, geeks and tourists who are lapping up this adventure. Corporates across the city are now using it as a team building activity, something which costs about '450 per head for a group of five to seven. “Managers also have the opportunity to go behind the scenes and take note of who leads, who the most ambitious is or who needs a little more attention — all for constructive criticism,” says Venkat, who was earlier an advertising and marketing professional himself.

Scouring hundreds of garage sales, flea markets and online stores across the world for props for the room, Venkat and Nishita even came up with the storylines for these mystery game rooms. And they intend on keeping up the challenge. “Our vision is to redefine the world of active entertainment as we know it and to be the ‘shakeup’ in the world of entertainment where screens dominate,” says Nishita.