WAVES 2025 aims to boost India’s soft power through storytelling and global media presence.
A country typically projects two kinds of power in its dealings with other nations — hard power, which evokes fear in its rivals, and soft power, which induces voluntary deference.
One of the best examples of India’s soft power projection was seen in the 1990s, when Afghan President Najibullah Ahmadzai pulled out all the stops to welcome Indian actors who were in his country to shoot the film Khuda Gawah.
For centuries, India’s rich storytelling tradition, culture, heritage, and philosophy have placed it uniquely ahead of most of its peers, including China. Artists, singers, poets, writers and technicians have successfully projected the country's soft power as its brand ambassadors. Yet, it has not acquired the kind of heft that South Korea has achieved through K-pop and K-drama.
The four-day World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES) 2025, inaugurated in Mumbai on May 2, is one of the country's serious attempts to capitalise on its traditional strengths in culture and storytelling.
India’s entertainment and media (E&M) industry is currently valued at $28 billion, which is less than one per cent of the $2,800 billion global E&M industry. Even if India’s E&M industry were to grow threefold to over $100 billion within the next decade, as suggested by experts, it would still be underwhelming given the country’s size.
Given its geographical and climatic diversity and depth of talent, India could offer multiple options for filmmakers at affordable costs. Though Indian filmmakers have expanded their horizons to sell their films across the world, it is time for the country to attract international filmmakers to use Indian filmmaking facilities and become a hub for Asian cinema and capture at least $280-billion, or 10 per cent of the global E&M industry.
