Gaurav Banerjee puts capacity at the core of ‘decade of global Indian content’ push

New Delhi: Sony Pictures Networks India MD & CEO Gaurav Banerjee on Monday said India will not be able to convert its current moment of visibility into lasting global influence unless it invests urgently in creative capacity from specialised classrooms to regional content clusters.

Delivering the keynote address at the CII Big Picture Summit 2025 in his capacity as Chairman, CII National Council on Media & Entertainment, Banerjee framed the “decade of global Indian content” as a capacity-building project, not just a slogan.

“The countries that lead creatively have invested deeply in specialised creative-arts education and ecosystems. Institutions are how nations build capacity. Talent is how nations build influence,” he told delegates.

Building capacity from classrooms to clusters

Banerjee said India has expanded film, design and media programmes over the past decade, but ambitions are now outpacing the system’s ability to train and absorb talent. To close that gap, he argued for a structured push on four fronts.

First, he called for new specialised creative institutions – Centres of Excellence focused on writing, animation, gaming, VFX, design, post-production and creative entrepreneurship “across all languages, and not just Hindi or English”. 

These, he said, must be designed to consistently turn India’s storytelling potential into a globally competitive craft.

Second, he pressed for stronger industry-academia partnerships, with curricula co-created by studios, broadcasters, platforms and production houses. 

Training, in his view, must be “practical, contemporary, immersive and directly connected to real industry needs”, including emerging areas such as virtual production and advanced VFX pipelines.

Third, Banerjee argued for regional creative clusters where talent, technology, creators and businesses operate in close proximity. 

Such hubs, spread across centres and languages, can create the “talent density” that has powered global creative capitals.

Fourth, he asked for public–private partnerships with urgency, with government “enabling” and industry “energising” to scale infrastructure, scholarships and support systems quickly, rather than in incremental steps.

“These are not gaps, they are opportunities to lead,” he said, adding that as demand for Indian storytelling rises worldwide, the sector’s responsibility is to increase the number of world-class creators it produces every year.

‘A $100-bn industry is within reach, if we raise our ambition’

Only after detailing this execution blueprint did Banerjee move to the macro opportunity.

Citing the CII White Paper, he said the global media and entertainment industry is projected to touch $3.5 trillion by 2030, with India expected to grow 2.6 times faster than the world. Yet, India currently accounts for only about 2% of global M&E value.

“This is not a limitation; it is our extraordinary opportunity. A phenomenal headroom to grow dramatically,” he said. “A $100-billion Indian M&E industry is within reach, but it requires clarity, coherence, conviction and, above all, ambition.”

He described the present as a “moment of profound transformation” where talent, technology, culture and confidence are aligning in India’s creative economy.

‘Why should our market be only India?’

Banerjee said Indian culture is already travelling faster than before, with music topping charts in North America, digital creators from small towns reaching global audiences and films finding viewers beyond the diaspora. 

However, he argued that the industry’s ambition has been shaped and limited by the comfort of a large domestic market.

“For decades, success meant succeeding within India,” he said. “But in a world where stories can cross borders instantly, we must ask: why should our market be only India? Why not the world?”

He contrasted this with South Korea, which in the late 1990s made a conscious decision to treat cultural output as a strategic export. That policy, supported by government and industry, built a pipeline that now spans dramas, films, music and gaming.

“They didn’t just export content, they exported confidence. A belief that their stories could travel everywhere. India needs that same global ambition,” he said.

Banerjee pointed to newer Indian work that has broken the formula and found acceptance, citing Mahavtar Narasimha as an animated title mounted on a larger canvas and not positioned only for children.

“Younger audiences are telling us that they want fresh, bold, original stories. The real constraint on our growth is not the market, it is the ambition we place on ourselves,” he said.

Navigating the AI decade without losing the human core

Looking ahead, Banerjee described the coming years as the “AI decade” for media and entertainment, with new tools poised to reshape workflows and improve efficiency, scale and speed across production and distribution.

He drew a clear distinction, however, between process and authorship.

“AI has the potential to reshape workflows, and improve efficiency, scale and speed. But AI will not define creativity. Human imagination will. India’s natural strength lies in its people, not its tools,” he said.

Banerjee said he was keen to hear from other industry leaders at the summit on how AI opportunities can be pursued “responsibly and ethically”, signalling that guardrails and values will have to evolve alongside experimentation.

‘Define success by global influence, not domestic scale alone’

In his closing remarks, Banerjee said India’s media and entertainment sector must stop measuring itself only by domestic reach and revenue and start setting benchmarks in terms of global impact.

“India cannot define success by domestic scale alone. We must define success by global influence,” he said.

“If we raise our ambition, if we build institutions with seriousness, if we nurture creators across languages, and if we think boldly, not just about the India we are, but the India we can be, then India will not just grow. India will lead,” he concluded, setting the tone for the CII Big Picture Summit’s agenda around the “decade of global Indian content”.