WAVES 2025 generates Rs 1,328 crore in business and Rs 8,000 cr in MoUs

New Delhi: The debut edition of the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES 2025) concluded with significant business milestones, positioning India as a rising global force in the creative economy. 

Held at Mumbai’s Jio World Convention Centre, the four-day summit facilitated over Rs 1,328 crore in business deals through its WAVES Bazaar, while the Government of Maharashtra inked Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) worth Rs 8,000 crore with leading educational and corporate institutions in the media and entertainment (M\&E) sector.

Rs 971 crore has come from B2B meetings alone. A key highlight of the Bazaar was the Buyer-Seller Market, which witnessed over 3,000 B2B meetings.

Launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who declared WAVES the dawn of India’s "Orange Economy," the summit brought together over 100 international speakers, 140+ sessions, and thousands of participants across exhibitions, panel discussions, and B2B forums. 

The Prime Minister urged global investors to bet on Indian talent and called upon Indian youth to lead a storytelling revolution that reflects a billion voices.

Marketplace momentum & global collaborations

The WAVES Bazaar witnessed a flurry of deal-making across film, VFX, animation, music, and radio, with Rs 971 crore worth of B2B meetings forming the backbone of the Rs 1,328 crore total. 

Notable announcements included Indo-UK and Indo-Russian co-productions, a multi-year Korean content deal between Prime Video and CJ ENM, and an upcoming Indian Film Festival in New Zealand.

The Maharashtra government has also added business value to the summit by signing MoUs worth Rs 8,000 crore at the WAVES. While MoUs worth Rs 1,500 crore were signed each with the University of York and the University of Western Australia, the state’s Industries Department signed MoUs worth Rs 3,000 cr and Rs 2,000 cr with Prime Focus and Godrej, respectively.

Startups & policy backbone

Startups also took centre stage at WAVES. The WAVEX Accelerator attracted over 1,000 entries and facilitated investment discussions worth Rs 50 crore. Investors, including Lumikai, Jio, and WarmUp Ventures, showed keen interest in next-gen ideas from Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities. The summit also formalised plans for incubators and mentorship programs dedicated to nurturing creative entrepreneurs.

On the policy front, India launched five knowledge reports, including BCG’s ‘From Content to Commerce’—which valued India’s creator economy at $350 billion in annual influence—and Ernst & Young’s ‘A Studio Called India,’ which projected the country as a cost-effective content hub. The unveiling of the Indian Institute of Creative Technology (IICT) further cemented India’s intent to become the “IIT of M\&E education,” with industry partnerships from Meta, Adobe, Google, and Microsoft.

A global mandate & national vision

In a strong show of international unity, 77 nations signed the ‘WAVES Declaration’ at the Global Media Dialogue, pledging to bridge the digital divide and promote peace through storytelling. Ministers, including S. Jaishankar and Ashwini Vaishnaw, emphasised co-productions, youth skilling, and the role of technology in content creation.

The event’s cultural and technological depth was showcased through experiences like the Bharat Pavilion’s “From Kala to Code” journey and the Create in India Challenge, spotlighting over 750 creators from 60 countries. The summit also hosted the 8th National Community Radio Sammelan, celebrating grassroots media innovation.

The maiden edition of WAVES covered a broad spectrum of topics, including Broadcasting and Infotainment, AVGC-XR, Digital Media, and Films. With more than 140 sessions featuring more than 100 international speakers, spread across three main halls (each accommodating over 1,000 participants) and five additional halls with capacities ranging from 75 to 150, the Summit maintained overwhelming attendance levels, with many sessions recording full occupancy.

The plenary Sessions featured over 50 keynote addresses by eminent personalities such as Mukesh Ambani, Ted Sarandos, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Neal Mohan, Shantanu Narayen, Mark Read, Adam Mosseri, and Nita Ambani. Their insights offered compelling perspectives on the evolving entertainment industry, advertising landscape, and digital transformation. Film icons including Chiranjeevi, Mohanlal, Hema Malini, Akshay Kumar, Nagarjuna, Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Allu Arjun, and Shekhar Kapur, many of whom were also members of the WAVES Advisory Board, engaged in thought-provoking conversations on the future of cinema and content creation in the age of virtual production and artificial intelligence.

The 40 masterclasses at WAVES 2025 were designed to offer practical learning and creative exploration. Participants gained direct exposure to industry techniques through sessions such as The Art of Acting by Aamir Khan, Craft of Direction by Farhan Akhtar, and Insights into Filmmaking by Michael Lehmann. Other sessions explored behind-the-scenes narratives like the making of Panchayat by Amazon Prime, designing AR lenses, creating AI avatars, and developing games using generative AI. These sessions provided professionals and aspiring creators with actionable knowledge and tools to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving creative economy.

WAVES also featured 55 breakout sessions, which provided a platform for in-depth discussions on specialised themes such as broadcasting, digital media, OTT, AI, Music, News, Live events, Animation, Gaming, Virtual production, Comics, and Filmmaking. These interactive sessions brought together senior professionals from leading companies, including Meta, Google, Amazon, X, Snap, Spotify, DNEG, Netflix, and NVIDIA, along with representatives from industry bodies such as FICCI, CII, and IMI.