India’s creative economy ambitions were on full display at WAVES 2025, the inaugural World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit, where a new government report tallies over $1.1 billion in media and entertainment deals and investment commitments inked during the four-day event.
Held in Mumbai from May 1–4 and envisioned and inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the summit convened delegates from more than 100 countries, 3,100 companies, and 100,000 participants spanning film, tech, music, gaming, streaming, and policy. According to the official WAVES 2025 outcome report, released on Friday, the event catalyzed new international partnerships, state-backed infrastructure investments, and large-scale commitments to creator development.
Mumbai, the capital of the western Indian state of Maharashtra, is home to the Hindi-language Bollywood film industry. The Maharashtra government led the reported deal flow, signing memoranda of understanding worth INR8,000 crore ($930 million), including a INR3,000 crore ($349 million) commitment from Prime Focus to develop a 200-acre Film City. Additional MoUs were signed with the University of York and the University of Western Australia (each INR1,500 crore / $174 million) and Godrej (INR2,000 crore / $232 million) for education and media infrastructure projects.
WAVES Bazaar, launched earlier this year as a permanent global marketplace for M&E dealmaking, facilitated INR1,328 crore ($154 million) in business transactions during the summit, according to the report. The platform hosted over 3,000 B2B meetings and recorded seven key international signings. These included a €30 million ($34.9 million) Indo-European co-production pact between India’s Broadvision Perspectives and Luxembourg’s Fabrique d’Images, and a U.K.-India television series co-development MoU between The Bridge and Graphiti Studios. The Tiger Shroff-starrer “Jahaan” also drew attention from global distributors.
The Indian Institute of Creative Technology (IICT) signed industry partnerships with Apple, Adobe, Microsoft, Meta, Google, Star India, and NVIDIA to support training, rendering, IP development, and job creation in the creative tech space. Meanwhile, the launch of the Nifty WAVES Index, covering 43 listed M&E firms, signaled a push toward tracking the sector’s financial performance on Indian stock markets.
The summit’s “Create in India Challenge” drew more than 100,000 registrations from 60+ countries and featured 34 creator competitions across animation, music, XR, film, gaming, and digital design. The initiative’s finale was hosted at Creatosphere, a talent discovery and innovation zone that the government plans to expand into a year-round platform.
Startups took center stage at WaveX, where 30 companies – selected from a pool of 1,500 – pitched to marquee investors including Lumikai Ventures, Mirae Asset, Microsoft, and WarmUp Ventures. The WAVES report notes that 127 startups were connected to investors and partners through the initiative.
Among the 140 conference sessions and plenaries were appearances by Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, WPP CEO Mark Read, and Reliance Industries chair Mukesh Ambani. YouTube CEO Neal Mohan announced an INR850 crore ($99 million) commitment to boost India’s creator economy, citing the country’s scale, multilingual creators, and global reach. “India isn’t just leading in music and film – it’s now a creator nation,” Mohan said.
The summit also drew major Indian film industry figures including Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Akshay Kumar, Aamir Khan, Chiranjeevi, Mohanlal, Rajinikanth, Nagarjuna, Hema Malini, Anupam Kher, and Mithun Chakraborty, many of whom served on the official advisory board or participated in key sessions and cultural events.
At the Global Media Dialogue, attended by representatives from 77 nations, the “WAVES Declaration” was adopted – a joint commitment to ethical AI, digital equity, content integrity, and cross-border cooperation in the creative industries.
The cultural programming was equally ambitious. “Waves of India,” a collaborative album featuring original compositions by Oscar winners M.M. Keeravani and A.R. Rahman, and Meet Bros, was launched on the opening day. Other highlights included classical and folk performances, fusion acts, and international showcases from Mexico, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
According to the WAVES report, the summit will now become an annual fixture in February. Components such as WAVES Bazaar and Creatosphere are set to expand into full-time global platforms supporting year-round dealmaking and talent development. As Prime Minister Modi stated at the inaugural session, “This is the right time to create in India, create for the world.”
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