WAVES, the first of its kind entertainment summit in India, was inaugurated on 1st May at Jio World Convention Centre in Bombay at the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The World Audio Video Entertainment Summit is being held from May 1 to 4.
In his inaugural speech, Modi said that India was a powerhouse of story-telling and emphasised that it had countless stories, what with its “timeless treasures”. Pointing to the powerful country India was destined to become, the PM said, “Our time has just started. We have a lot to offer. This is the rising time of the orange economy of India, and content, creativity and culture are the pivots of the orange economy. Indian movies are reaching all corners of the world, they are being released in more than 100 countries.”
He also announced WAVES Awards in the world of arts and creativity.
The government has allocated Rs. 400 crore to build the first Indian Institute of Creative Technology (IICT) in Bombay, I & B minister Ashwini Vaishnaw announced at the summit. The IICT would become a national hub for animation, visual effects, gaming, comics and the extended reality (ER) sector. While the first phase of the IICT is located at the NFDC Building on Peddar Road, the second phase will be built on a 10-acre campus at Film City, Goregaon.
Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis said that Bombay’s Film City, spread over 500 acres, was being developed into a global centre for the next-generation studio ecosystems. Of this, 120 acres will be dedicated to a media and entertainment city focussed on animation, visual effects and gaming. The IICT is being established by the I & B ministry in strategic collaboration with FICCI and CII, as a national centre of excellence on the lines of IITs and IIMs.
Narendra Modi unveiled postage stamps in memory of Guru Dutt, P. Bhanumathi, Raj Khosla, Ritwik Ghatak and Salil Chowdhury on the occasion.
Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani pointed out that the Indian media and entertainment industry was currently pegged at $28 billion and had the potential to grow to over $100 billion in the next decade.