WAVES Summit 2025: Industry sees strategic opportunity to make India global content hub

While some leaders shared that the summit will contribute greatly to the country's GDP, others pointed out that the spotlight will be on the power and potential of Indian storytelling

by Aditi Gupta
Published: Apr 18, 2025 8:59 AM | 5 min read

With less than two weeks to go for the World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (WAVES) 2025, the Indian media and entertainment industry is abuzz with excitement and anticipation for the event to bring about meaningful conversations and actionable outcomes.

The summit, scheduled to take place from May 1 to 4, is a strategic move to position India as a global content powerhouse, shared industry leaders.

Waves summit, which will be held in Mumbai, will also have Prime Minister Narendra Modi conduct a CEOs round table and over 25 cabinet ministers in attendance.

According to Kailashnath Adhikari, Managing Director, Shri Adhikari Brothers (SAB), “It is time that they get global recognition. With the kind of names joining the Summit, it will be a great platform to exchange ideas and knowledge. Ultimately, it will contribute greatly to the GDP.”

The summit is expected to catalyse change across TV, radio, digital, gaming, animation, VFX, and live events—driving growth and innovation at a historic scale, he said.

Rajiv Khattar, a seasoned broadcasting expert, emphasized the need for discussions around the regulatory framework that governs the digital and traditional media space.

“The important sessions should be on the regulatory aspects on the OTT space, content regulations, broadcast bill, and the recent inter parliamentary committee suggestion on having MEITY, MIB and MIT under a single umbrella. Next should be recommendations of TRAI with MIB, Copyright protection, content regulations are other hot topics,” he said.

Khattar further stressed the strategic opportunity for India to position itself as a global content hub.

“Efforts and incentives to make India a content hub especially the content production, though we are good at software and VFX. Up-linking hub, as we can cater to huge geography but to make it easier to operate,” he said.

This sentiment is echoed across the industry, with experts viewing the Summit as a turning point in giving the Indian media and entertainment sector its much-deserved global spotlight.

Adhikari cited the FICCI-EY report, which projects the sector to grow to USD 3 trillion, as a testament to the industry’s immense potential.

“It’s a very opportune time that the government has thought about giving a push to the sector. It could augment the media and entertainment space in getting more traction,” Adhikari said.

Sharing similar views, Pankaj Krishna, Founder, Chrome DM, said: “Looking forward to this year’s WAVES Summit—timely and relevant... especially with India’s digital evolution in full swing. As Per COTT - With 94 Mn Connected TV homes and OTT users at 481 Mn, the convergence of linear and digital is undeniable. I’m particularly interested in how the summit addresses FAST channels, regional content scale-up and the urgent need for unified measurement as viewership fragments across platforms.

“Sessions on AI in storytelling, content monetisation and cross-platform strategy look promising—especially given OTT now penetrates nearly 50% of India’s digital universe - COTT . These discussions could shape the next phase of content planning and delivery. Overall, the industry’s at a turning point and this summit feels well-placed to steer it forward.”

The WAVES Summit also aims to spotlight the power of Indian storytelling and its potential to resonate with global audiences.

Siddharth Tewary, founder of Swastik Productions and the content distribution platform One Life Studios, shared his thoughts on the importance of this initiative, saying, “WAVES Summit is a great initiative to take Indian stories to the world, we have been taking them in our own way through our content distribution and syndication arm One Life Studios since 2017.”

He noted that government backing has historically played a vital role in the international success of stories from countries like Turkey and South Korea.

“I believe this initiative shows the keen interest from the government and that's what's exciting, as countries where the government has backed storytellers, it has made their stories reach the world, recent examples being Turkish and Korean stories,” he said.

With India’s creative industries making rapid strides in digital content, gaming, animation, live events, and visual effects, the WAVES Summit serves as a powerful platform for cross-border partnerships, policy shaping, and future-oriented collaboration.

As Mumbai prepares to host leaders, creators, policymakers, and innovators from across the world, the Summit is set to be a melting pot of ideas and a catalyst for transformative growth in the Indian media and entertainment space.

The Advisory Board of WAVES has a strong and impressive line-up of global and Indian icons like Reliance Chairman Mukesh Ambani; Ravi Ahuja, President and Chief Executive Officer, Sony Pictures Entertainment; Amazon Prime Video and Amazon Studios Head, Mike Hopkins; Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella; Alphabet Inc and Google CEO Sundar Pichai; Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India and also a stakeholder in Dharmatic Productions, and many more.

The speaker line-up is equally star-studded, featuring some of the most influential names in global media and technology, including Shantanu Narayen, CEO, Adobe Inc; Neal Mohan, CEO, YouTube; Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram; Vince Gerardis, Producer of Game of Thrones, and many more.

The event will also see attendance by stars of the entertainment world, including actors like Shahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, Anupam Kher, Deepika Padukone, Rajnikanth, Hema Malini and Producer Ekta Kapoor.