Our Bureau
Mumbai
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES 2025) at Jio World Convention Centre (JWCC) in Mumbai on Thursday. The PM addressed a huge audience including celebrities from the Indian film fraternity and popular social media content creators.
While promising to organize further initiatives like the WAVES awards in the near future, the PM talked extensively about the potential of Indian content creators to lead the country to a financial and creative boom.
The first day started with a panel discussion titled ‘Legends & Legacies: The Stories that Shaped India’s Soul’ including speakers such as the legendary actors Hema Malini, Mithun Chakraborty, Rajinikanth, Mohanlal and Chiranjeevi. The session was moderated by superstar Akshay Kumar. The next session, ‘The New Mainstream: Breaking Borders, Building Legends’, moderated by filmmaker Karan Johar, saw director SS Rajamouli, music composer AR Rahman, and actors Anil Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal voicing their opinion on the new age of filmmaking.
The summit had superstars Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone as speakers in the session titled, ‘The Journey: From Outsider to Ruler’, again moderated by the talented filmmaker Johar, followed by the brilliant Allu Arjun who took the stage in the later part of the day.
The day ended with reminiscing the legacy of Manoj Kumar, where Hema Malini and director Madhur Bhandarkar talked about the late actor’s great line of work.
Several interesting sessions will be held on Friday including Aamir Khan, Namit Malhotra, Dinesh Vijan, Ajay Bijli, Charles Roven and Ritesh Sidhwani as the main speakers.
Taking the stage also will be Nita Ambani, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Vijay Deverakonda on Day 2 of the inaugural event attracting global praise.
WAVES 2025, a first-of-its-kind summit in India, with a tagline of “Connecting Creators, Connecting Countries, will witness participation from over 90 countries, with over 10,000 delegates, 1,000 creators, over 300 companies, and over 350 startups. The summit will feature 42 plenary sessions, 39 breakout sessions, and 32 masterclasses spanning diverse sectors including broadcasting, infotainment, AVGC-XR, films, and digital media.
At WAVES 2025, India will also host the Global Media Dialogue (GMD) for the first time, with ministerial participation from 25 countries.
