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ayush-cyber01/bookmyshow_moviealert

Analysis updated 2026-05-18

0PythonAudience · generalComplexity · 3/5Setup · moderate

TLDR

A free Telegram bot, run on GitHub Actions, that alerts you the instant a movie opens for booking on BookMyShow.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Movie Alert Bot))
    What it does
      Watches BookMyShow
      Sends Telegram alert
      Runs on schedule
    Tech stack
      Python
      GitHub Actions
      ScraperAPI
    Use cases
      Catch tickets fast
      Skip manual refreshing
      Track specific theatre
    Audience
      Movie fans
      India ticket buyers
      Automation hobbyists

Code map

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filefunction / class

What do people build with it?

USE CASE 1

Get notified the moment tickets open for a specific movie you want to see

USE CASE 2

Watch one particular theatre for a movie's opening booking window

USE CASE 3

Watch any theatre showing a movie on a given date

USE CASE 4

Avoid manually refreshing BookMyShow every hour to check for tickets

What is it built with?

PythonGitHub ActionsScraperAPITelegram Bot API

How does it compare?

ayush-cyber01/bookmyshow_moviealert0xallam/my-recipe0xhassaan/nn-from-scratch
Stars00
LanguagePythonPythonPython
Last pushed2022-11-22
MaintenanceDormant
Setup difficultymoderatemoderatemoderate
Complexity3/52/54/5
Audiencegeneralgeneraldeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you get it running?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Needs a Telegram bot token, a ScraperAPI key, and an external cron-job.org trigger since GitHub's built-in schedule is too unreliable for short intervals.

In plain English

This project solves a very specific annoyance: waiting for movie tickets to open on BookMyShow, the popular Indian ticket booking site, and having to refresh the page over and over to check. Instead, this small Python script checks for you automatically and sends a single Telegram message the moment booking opens for the movie, theatre, or date you are watching. It runs entirely for free using GitHub Actions, so there is no server to maintain. Because GitHub's own scheduling can be too slow and unreliable for a check every few minutes, the project relies on an outside service called cron job dot org to trigger the GitHub workflow every ten minutes instead. Each time it runs, it loads the target movie's booking page through a service called ScraperAPI, which routes the request through an Indian IP address, since BookMyShow blocks requests coming from typical overseas data center servers like the ones GitHub Actions normally uses. Once it detects that booking has switched from closed to open, it sends you exactly one Telegram alert and then stays silent, tracking that it already alerted you in a small state file so you are not spammed with repeat messages. Setting it up means creating a Telegram bot through BotFather to get a token and chat ID, signing up for a free ScraperAPI key, and adding both as secrets in your GitHub repository settings. You then edit a configuration file to point at the specific movie, city, and either a particular theatre or any theatre showing on a given date, plus set up the cron job dot org trigger with a scoped GitHub access token. Once running, no ongoing manual work is needed.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Walk me through creating a Telegram bot with BotFather and finding my chat ID for this project
Prompt 2
Explain how ScraperAPI helps this bot avoid BookMyShow blocking GitHub Actions IP addresses
Prompt 3
Help me fill in config.json to watch a specific theatre for a movie on a given date
Prompt 4
Show me how to set up a cron-job.org trigger that calls my GitHub Actions workflow every ten minutes

Frequently asked questions

What is bookmyshow_moviealert?

A free Telegram bot, run on GitHub Actions, that alerts you the instant a movie opens for booking on BookMyShow.

What language is bookmyshow_moviealert written in?

Mainly Python. The stack also includes Python, GitHub Actions, ScraperAPI.

How hard is bookmyshow_moviealert to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is bookmyshow_moviealert for?

Mainly general.

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