The WAVES summit will drive the country’s creative economy through intellectual property creation and develop its M&E infrastructure. It will also help build the industry’s capacity to create a skilled workforce for global needs
As the final countdown to the WAVES Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit draws near, the moot question remains: how will the global communication ecosystem respond to the vision, challenges, and opportunities unleashed by the four-day summit in Mumbai from 1 May?
More than just another gathering, WAVES is a seismic shift. It promises to reorient the way we understand, design, and deliver the future of media and entertainment (M&E). With an architecture built around inclusivity, imagination, and integrated diplomacy, the summit is poised to be a landmark “Communication Moment” for the world.
Through its immersive curation of threads, themes, ideas, and tools, WAVES will redraw the boundaries of what M&E can mean in an era marked by disruption and reinvention.
At the heart of this transformation lies a compelling proposition: that the summit is not merely about showcasing creativity — it is about systematising it. The real takeaway from WAVES 2025 is not just the exchange of ideas, but the articulation of a futuristic communication order — one that interweaves Commerce, Creativity, Content, and Culture into a coherent, collaborative, and globally relevant vision.
From the outset, WAVES has been propelled by an unflinching commitment to innovation and ideation. As the inaugural edition, it places “Communication First” not just as a slogan but as an organising principle. For perhaps the first time, a summit in the M&E space has been imagined as a “Communication Mahakumbh”, where continuity meets disruption, and heritage is re-engineered through innovation.
The four identified pillars of WAVES — Broadcast & Infotainment, AVGC-XR, Digital Media, and Films — each distinct in their scope, nevertheless converge powerfully in intent and deliverables. Together, they represent a conscious synthesis of old and new, traditional mediums and emerging technologies, global ambitions and local identities.
What sets WAVES apart is its ability to harmonise these forces into a dynamic, composite framework. In doing so, it sketches the contours of a new communication order — one led by India, but built for the world. The catalytic force behind this vision has been the launch of Create in India: Season I, an initiative that has electrified the industry with its participatory energy and collaborative ethos.
It has thrown open the doors to storytellers, technologists, investors, and policymakers, crafting a rich ecosystem of engagement that mirrors the complexity of the M&E sector itself.
The themes and templates curated under this banner are refreshingly forward — looking. They tackle not just today’s industry pain points but anticipate tomorrow’s cultural, economic, and technological shifts. From decentralisation of narratives and platform-neutral storytelling to immersive formats and multilingual access, WAVES has laid down a clear thesis: the future belongs to those who dare to reimagine.
In doing so, it positions India as the Content Hub of the World, a nation not just exporting stories, but shaping the very grammar of global
storytelling. The commercial vision that undergirds this ambition is bold and aspirational, showcasing India’s intent to lead not only through scale, but through thought leadership.
WAVES 2025 emerges at a moment when the “Creator Economy” is reshaping global production — consumption cycles. Here, India is not a passive participant but a proactive architect; fusing its demographic dividend, cultural wealth, and technological prowess into an unbeatable formula for soft power.
WAVES is the conduit through which this soft power is being systematised, internationalised, and strategically leveraged.
It is not just a summit. It is a signal — a signal that India is ready to anchor the future of M&E diplomacy through stories, ideas, and innovations that resonate across borders.
The kinetic current of visibility, opportunity, collaboration, and growth generated by WAVES is designed to have a lasting ripple effect, influencing how future summits around the world are conceived, especially in terms of fostering international tie — ups, cinematic synergies, and media-tech alliances.
At its core, WAVES is a think tank in motion — where storytelling meets strategy, policy meets participation, and art meets action. By blurring the lines between entertainment and engagement, it reminds the world that M&E is no longer a side-show to diplomacy. It is diplomacy. In an increasingly multipolar world, cultural influence is power. And the medium through which that power is asserted is communication — fluid, visual, participatory.
Through M&E, nations now shape perceptions, steer conversations, and signal intent. WAVES situates India’s M&E industry squarely within this strategic frame, projecting it as a potent tool of statecraft and global engagement. The brilliance of WAVES lies in its refusal to chase uniformity. It understands that the future of M&E is not about amplifying one dominant voice but about curating a chorus of perspectives.
As the world negotiates climate shifts, social transformations, digital disruptions, and identity politics, storytelling must evolve — from monologue to mosaic.
India, with its plurality of languages, genres, and formats, offers a compelling framework for this evolution. WAVES is a celebration of that plurality. It is a staging ground for narratives that are rooted in tradition but responsive to the future – narratives that can travel far, yet stay authentic. In a time where content is everywhere, WAVES is a reminder that context is king.
And in this context, India leads not just as a creator, but as a curator of meaning in a fragmented world. To conclude, one of the key objectives of the summit is to have global M&E leaders invest in India.
A lot of hard work and thought has gone into WAVES and officials are upbeat about its success. Sanjay Jaju, Secretary, I&B Ministry, said WAVES would be the first-ever global summit covering the entire gamut of the M&E industry.
The most promising aspect of WAVES is the interest it has generated across the globe. The international outreach of the summit is evident by a line-up that boasts Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, Instagram Head Adam Mosseri, Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos, marketing agency WPP’s CEO Mark Read, Spotify’s Chief Public Affairs Officer Dustee Jenkins, and NVIDIA’s Vice President Richard Kerris — all of them will be part of the programming roster.
The Ministry hopes that the summit will promote India as a “one-stop destination” for content creation, drive the country’s creative economy through intellectual property creation and develop its M&E infrastructure, as also build the industry’s capacity to create a skilled workforce for global needs.
(The writer is a former civil servant and writes on cinema and strategic communication. Inputs provided by Zoya Ahmad and Vaishnavie Srinivasan. Views are personal)
