WAVES 2025 catalyses over Rs 10,000 crore in M&E deals: Official Outcome report

New Delhi:  India’s push to position itself as a global hub for media and entertainment materialised at WAVES 2025, as the government recorded over Rs 10,000 crore in deals and investment commitments signed during the four-day summit.

The Maharashtra government signed investment agreements worth nearly Rs 8,000 crore at the inaugural edition of the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES 2025), according to the WAVES outcome report released on Friday, July 18, 2025. 

Among the marquee deals, a Rs 3,000 crore investment by Prime Focus will be used to build a 200-acre Film City in Maharashtra. The Godrej Group committed Rs 2,000 crore for the development of a media campus in Panvel. The University of York and the University of Western Australia will each invest Rs 1,500 crore to set up their first campuses in Mumbai.

The summit’s business engine was powered by two major initiatives, WAVES Bazaar and WaveX. 

As per the report, The Bazaar, positioned as a global marketplace for the creative economy, facilitated over 3,000 B2B meetings and generated more than Rs 1,328 crore in business transactions. 

Seven international co-production agreements were announced, including a €30 million Indo-European animation deal between Broadvision Perspectives (India) and Fabrique d’Images (Europe). UK-based The Bridge signed an MoU with India’s Graphiti Studios for a factual co-production, while Indian film ‘Khidki Gaon’ secured a post-production and VFX deal with the Asian Cinema Fund.

WaveX, the summit’s dedicated platform for creative-tech startups, saw 30 selected ventures pitch to 29 top-tier investors, including Lumikai Ventures, Amagi, Microsoft, Mirae Asset, and WarmUp Ventures. Of the 1,500 applicants, 127 startups were successfully connected to investors and potential partners, according to the official WAVES 2025 outcome report released Friday.

Held in Mumbai from May 1–4 and inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, WAVES 2025 brought together over one lakh visitors from 100 countries, featuring 140 sessions and participation from more than 3,100 companies. 

The Indian Institute of Creative Technology (IICT) also emerged as a centrepiece of the summit’s long-term vision. It signed a series of MoUs with global tech majors, including Google, Apple, Microsoft, Meta, Adobe, NVIDIA, and Star India. These tie-ups aim to boost industry-academia collaboration through scholarships, internships, and curriculum innovation in digital storytelling, game design, and immersive media.

On Friday, July 18, 2025, the Union Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Ashwini Vaishnaw, and the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Devendra Fadnavis, jointly inaugurated the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) campus at the NFDC Films Division Complex, Pedder Road, Mumbai.

The event also saw the launch of the ‘Nifty WAVES Index’, tracking 43 listed media and entertainment firms.

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan announced an Rs 850 crore investment to accelerate India’s creator economy, citing over 15,000 Indian channels with more than 1 million subscribers. Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen hailed India as “the world’s next creative superpower,” and WPP’s Mark Read demonstrated how AI is transforming storytelling, using India-led campaigns as case studies. Their endorsements reflect growing confidence in India’s ability to lead in scalable, ethical content creation.

A key policy milestone from WAVES 2025 was the adoption of the “WAVES Declaration” at the Global Media Dialogue, where representatives from 77 nations pledged collective action on ethical AI, cross-border content collaboration, digital inclusion, and the safeguarding of cultural diversity, positioning India’s media diplomacy within a framework of shared global values.

The government has announced plans to institutionalise WAVES as an annual event, expand the ‘Create in India’ Challenge into 25 languages, and run the WAVES Bazaar and Creatosphere platforms year-round. 

According to the outcome report, the 2025 edition catalysed not just deals but a broader shift in perception, recasting India not just as a content-producing nation but as a strategic force in shaping the future of global media and storytelling.