After Laser Tag, here comes Paintball. The super-fun group activity debuts in the city at Breakout on Ray Street, all guns blazing!

The 1,300sq ft indoor arena, which opened doors in February, has a jailbreak theme. Teams are divided into cops or terrorists, but the goal is to wipe out the enemy. 

The brains behind Breakout are two BCom Hons students of Bhawanipur Education Society College — Aryann Shorewala and Shrey Agarwal — who felt there wasn’t enough for teenagers to do in the city. And they had a secret investor to help execute their vision. 

“There are lots of places to eat and smoke hookah but hardly any where you can actually enjoy with your friends,” said Aryann. 

And guess what served as their muse? The Fawad Khan-Sonam Kapoor starrer Khoobsurat! “We had played paintball outside Calcutta and enjoyed it and after watching the scene in Khoobsurat where Sonam plays paintball, we decided to bring it to Calcutta,” said Shrey. 

At Breakout, it’s best to play in teams, with a minimum of four members and a maximum of eight. Each team is given 50 bullets and at the end of the 30-minute session, the dirtiest team loses. 

Players are given face masks, armours and a list of safety rules. The strobe lights, fog machines and sound effects like ambulance siren and gunshots, along with bunkers and tunnels, add to the strife-torn feel of the game. 

The bullets are gelatin balls filled with non-toxic colour which burst on hitting the targets, splattering them with neon or metallic shades.

The winners get a certificate from Breakout; the losers have to kneel down and pose for pictures uploaded on Breakout’s Facebook page. 

“The response has been fantastic. It gets really crowded after college hours and it’s best to pre-book for weekends and peak hours,” said the duo. Now get ready to paint the town neon red.  

Deborima Ganguly
Pictures: Rashbehari Das