Waves 2025 was a summit of audiovisual entertainment launched by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry of India to connect people from performing arts, music, sports and cinema from all over the world. It was inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi on 1st May, 2025, at Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai, where a thousand people were in attendance from different countries and all corners of India.
It was a very ambitious event and perhaps the only such event in the world with buyers, sellers and artists connecting with prior online B2B meetings. The summit had pavilions on the ground floor where Amazon, Jio Hotstar, Yashraj Films, Meta, Japan Trade Organisation and Netflix displayed their profile, besides a few new production houses offering their services. Most of them had their staff offering the contact details, except Netflix. There were three more floors of the Centre where different masterclasses and sessions were held.
Waves Bazaar’s aim was to facilitate B2B meetings of buyers, sellers and coproduction tie-ups for scripts, music, animation, game shows and comics. There was even a hub crafted by creators called Creatosphere featuring VFX, VR, animation, games and music. A seminar on community radio and how it would empower the community through the latest trends also took place.
“I would like to return again to India to do another film.”
-Dan Wolman
There were awards for the Create India Challenge category, which was participated in by students as well as professionals, and had jurors from different countries. Additionally, every evening, dancers performed Indian folk dances like Chhau, Bhangra, Manipuri, tribal and Maharashtrian folk. Six hundred dancers enthralled the audience under one roof.
The Meta pavilion was attended by actor Shraddha Kapoor as she spoke about her Instagram videos and the efficacy of social media promotion. Instagram is quite trendy these days, used all over the world to promote films, fashion shows, tourism and more with short video clips creatively.
The sports session attended by Odisha Chief Minister was pretty interesting as he stressed on the importance of promoting indigenous games of Kabaddi and Khoko. The Iranian Kabaddi player, Fazel Atrachali, thanked India for making him a household name. He revealed how he almost retired as he could not sustain his family without taking up another job. But then the Cricket Board Director of the UK supported the game and agreed to telecast the event. This has inspired many young players from the hinterland to pursue this game. The Odisha CM has also encouraged the players by offering the winning team one crore rupees, and now Khoko and Kabaddi attract young players as well as viewers to help grow our intangible cultural heritage.
There was an impressive session on challenges and solutions in cross-border productions.
Alastair Clark from the UK has produced ‘Sister Midnight’ in India, which was in Cannes 2024 Un Certain Regard. He was inspired by the film ‘SANTOSH’, which was shot in India and had received a 30% subsidy from the Indian government. He said there are always viewers for good stories.
Filmmaker Dan Wolman said he has shot in many countries, including China but he loved the hospitality of the Indians while shooting in Assam with Manju Bora and would like to return again to India to do another film.
The author with Manju Borah at Waves 2025
The Nigerian producer, Blessing Ebigieson, emphasised that culturally India is akin to Nigeria, such as arranged marriages, and that it is easy to relate to our stories. She also added that African stories should be told by them and not by outsiders.
Korean Animation studio owner, Heo Yong Keom said while making animation characters for a global audience, they have to give the characters’ features and profile which would be accepted universally.
Italian RAI TV producer, Maria Ammira, introduced her production of Count Monte Cristo which is actually a French novel by Alexander Dumas. However, RAI TV has incorporated Italian talents for the project to be accepted by the Italian audience. She said that even now, Kabir Bedi is popular among the older generation for starring in the iconic TV series, ‘Sandokan’. She expressed that RAI TV is open to co-production if there is a reference to Italian culture in the story.
There was also an informative session on the role of Intellectual Property, copyright and storytelling in the digital era. This is quite relevant in this day and age where there is a studio-IP culture as seen with Disney taking advantage of their franchises like Star Wars, Star Trek and Marvel.
However, a networking session for delegates was missing. Having one at a promotional event like Waves 2025 would have helped the delegates create contacts and collaborate with producers, artists, curators and players and more.
The final highlight of this diverse event was the session, Beyond Nostalgia, which discussed the business of restored classics. It was interesting to note that PVR has released a few old classics, and some have done very good business. NFDC Managing Director, Prakash Makdum, commented that the older audience watches older films with their children for nostalgia.
Unfortunately, the session was pretty Hindi/Bollywood centric which is a shame given India’s rich regional cinema industries. There could have easily been a discussion of regional classics like Satyajit Ray films, Malayalam classics like ‘Chemeen’ or Tamil films of Shivaji Ganesan. As an international event, the session could also have touched upon restored classics or international classics like Costa-Gavras’ ‘Z’ or Polanski’s ‘Rosemary’s Baby’.
The French have been in the forefront of cinema culture, having given a platform to international hits such as Visconti’s ‘The Damned’ and ‘The Leopard’ in their cinema theatres. The French government has always encouraged and given subsidies for cinema theatres, distribution to keep cinema culture alive. Indian government can benefit by following in their footsteps, such as showing leniency to the entertainment tax for cinema tickets and giving incentives to cinephiles as well as students to go to the cinemas. After all, cinema is culture, not only business, as French Minister Jack Lang puts it.
Waves 2025
