Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: THE premier edition of World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES 2025) concluded last week on a high note, registering an overwhelming response from exhibitors, industry leaders, startups, policymakers, academia, and the general public.
The summit emerged as a key convergence point for the media and entertainment ecosystem, drawing participation from every segment of the industry — from celebrated artists and influential content creators to tech innovators and corporate leaders. With a vibrant mix of exhibitions, panel discussions, and B2B collaborations, the event witnessed a remarkable turnout and reaffirmed India’s position as a rising global powerhouse of media and entertainment.
Star-studded event
The celebration of creativity, technology, and storytelling began with the inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a star-studded event held at Jio World Convention Centre, in Mumbai. Taking forward the vision of the Prime Minister, WAVES 2025, over the four days, acted as a platform for high-level exchange of ideas, skills, and sectoral insights.
The maiden edition of WAVES will be known for the high impact knowledge sessions and the discourse covering a broad spectrum of topics, including Broadcasting and Infotainment, AVGC-XR, Digital Media, and Films. With more than 140 sessions featuring more than 100 international speakers, the summit maintained overwhelming attendance levels. . The plenary sessions featured over 50 keynote addresses by eminent personalities such as Mukesh Ambani, Ted Sarandos, Kiran MazumdarShaw, Neal Mohan, Shantanu Narayen, Mark Read, Adam Mosseri, and Nita Ambani. Their insights offered compelling perspectives on the evolving entertainment industry, advertising landscape, and digital transformation.
Film icons including Chiranjeevi, Mohanlal, Hema Malini, Akshay Kumar, Nagarjuna, Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Allu Arjun, and Shekhar Kapur, many of whom were also members of the WAVES Advisory Board, engaged in thought-provoking conversations on the future of cinema and content creation in the age of virtual production and artificial intelligence. The inaugural edition of WAVES Bazaar was a resounding success as it has established itself as a premier platform for international business collaboration in the creative industries.
The marketplace recorded business deals or transactions worth Rs 1328 crore across the film, music, radio, VFX, and animation sectors. Out of the total estimated outcome, Rs 971 crore was from B2B meetings alone. A key highlight of the Bazaar was the Buyer-Seller Market which witnessed over 3,000 B2B meetings.
In a major achievement under international collaboration, Film India Screen Collective and Screen Canterbury NZ from New Zealand announced a collaborative proposal to launch the first-ever Indian Film Festival in New Zealand. Only Much Louder CEO Tushar Kumar and Alexander Zharov, CEO of Russian firm Gazprom Media CEO announcing early talks on a MoU to collaborate on cross-cultural festivals and co-produce comedy and music shows in Russia and India was another achievement.
Maharashtra MoUs
The announcement of the Prime Video & CJ ENM Multi-Year Collaboration was another highlight of the Bazaar as the strategic partnership was unveiled to distribute premium Korean content globally. The other milestones included the announcement of the film ‘Devi Chowdhurani,’ which became the India’s first official Indo-UK co-production, and the film ‘Violated’ which will be a co-production of Fusion Flicks from the UK and JVD Films.
The Maharashtra Government also added business value to the summit by signing MoUs worth Rs 8,000 crore at the WAVES. While MoUs worth Rs 1,500 crore were signed each with the University of York and the University of Western Australia, the state’s Industries Department signed MoUs worth Rs 3,000 cr and Rs 2,000 crore with Prime Focus and Godrej respectively.
