The biggest annual global convention in Asia spanning across all aspects of the media and entertainment industry, FRAMES, organised by Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), is back. Year-on-year, FRAMES has provided the entertainment fraternity with a platform to network and take stock of the status of media industry collectively. Not only have professionals shared knowledge on the platform but they also try and find solutions to problems. Keeping the basic objective in place, the theme of FRAMES 2005 is 'Entertainment - It's happening in India,' and will be presented by Amitabh Bachchan.

Even as the basic structure of the convention is still the same, the Chairman, Entertainment Committee, FICCI, Yash Chopra (Chairman, Yashraj Films) informed that the style this year is different. "In the same dimension, with the same objective of strengthening India's presence on the global media business map, FRAMES 2005 is focusing on varied areas - from emerging mediums and trends to developments on the existing ones."

The convention deliberates on sectors like Films, Multiplexes, Television, Cable, Conver-gence and Broadband, Digital Entertainment, Radio, Live Entertainment, Music, Theme Parks, Animation and Gaming. In each of these segments, issues like Finance, Marketing, Intellectual Property Rights, Co-production, Distribution and Branding and various others are covered. The inaugural session this year will witness the unveiling of the FICCI-PricewaterhouseCoopers Report on the Indian Entertainment Industry and the Entertainment Industry Law Book by Amarchand and Mangaldas.

"The focus in 2005 is more on the seamless transition of the different mediums," said Co-Chairman, Entertainment Committee, FICCI, Kunal Dasgupta, (CEO, SET India). The change that FRAMES 2005 sees in its format begins from the way the discussions are planned. Reducing the number of parallel sessions, a sector-wise segregation is done. "What was happening earlier is that sometimes two aspects of the same sector were discussed and people would have to choose on one. This was a problem and so this year we are changing that. Based on the interest in a sector, people can follow tracks and not miss any sessions in that sector," explained Reliance Entertainment Amit Khanna.

The sessions are broadly divided into four areas – 'Animation Track', 'Television Track', 'Film Track' and other special sessions on technology, convergence and financing among others. About 1,500 delegates from more than 20 countries are expected to participate in the event, which will be addressed by nearly 125 speakers. These include, Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting S Jaipal Reddy, Daniel Glickman, President & CEO, Motion Picture Association of America; Barrie Osborne, Producer, Lord of the Rings trilogy, Face off, Matrix; Jon Nierman, President, Electronic Arts, Asia; Pradip Baijal, Chairperson, TRAI; N R Narayan Murthy, Chairman, Infosys Technologies; Yash Chopra, Chairman of FICCI Entertainment Committee, Kunal Dasgupta, CEO, Sony Entertainment Television; Subhash Chandra, Chairman & Managing Director, Zee Telefilms; and Bollywood actor Shah Rukh Khan.

Onkar S Kanwar, President, FICCI said, "Every sector has a problem and over the years we have seen these problems solving. For example, the film industry had financing problem but now there are banks like IDBI, which are financing the projects and the problem is getting solved.