The four-day summit, themed “Connecting Creators, Connecting Countries,” aims to position India as a global hub for media, entertainment, and digital innovation
Our Bureau
Mumbai
Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES) 2025 today at the Jio World Convention Centre, calling it a historic moment for India’s cultural and creative sectors. The four-day summit, themed “Connecting Creators, Connecting Countries,” aims to position India as a global hub for media, entertainment, and digital innovation.
PM Modi addressed a diverse audience of artists, innovators, industry leaders, and policymakers from over 90 countries. “…India, with a billion-plus population, is also a land of a billion-plus stories and over a billion storytellers,” he said
“Every street, every river, every mountain in India carries a tale. Across more than six lakh villages, each one holds a new story, a fresh perspective. Truly, India has much more to offer,” the Prime Minister said.
A whole range of creative people – actors, directors and producers – attended the event and applauded the government initiative.
A few comments from the mega event:
“It is a fantastic initiative. had PM Narendra Modi’s encouragement. The entire government and the Maharashtra government are backing it. It is a great move to boost the entertainment industry” — Filmmaker Boney Kapoor
“Many great initiatives have been mentioned here. PM Narendra Modi spoke really well about how we should connect the world with storytelling and films. He gave an inspirational speech. This is a great initiative taken by him. We are proud as Indians of our government taking such an initiative under the leadership of PM Narendra Modi” – Director Madhur Bhandarkar
“It is really nice to be here at WAVES. I think it is a phenomenal start to a global event… It’s a great opportunity for all the filmmakers. It was an absolute honour to listen to the honourable Prime Minister and to witness the opening ceremony… Thank you for starting this initiative and looking forward to everything tech and movies…” — Producer Guneet Monga
“World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit, WAVES, is not just an acronym, it is a wave of culture, creativity and universal connectivity. Today when the world is looking for new ways of storytelling, India has a treasure of its stories dating back thousands of years, this treasure is timeless, thought-provoking and truly global. This is the time of dawn of Orange Economy in India, Content, Creativity and Culture – these are the three pillars of Orange Economy. Screen size may be getting smaller, but the scope is becoming infinite, Screen is getting micro but the message is becoming mega” – Actor Mithun Chakraborty
“This is an unprecedented event… Such an event could be possible only because of the vision of our Prime Minister. Many people dream of such things, but our Prime Minister has the spirit to make it possible. Now, our creators can tell their stories to the world, from here” – Prasoon Joshi
“Our Prime Minister has a fantastic vision. I am highly honoured to be here. This is just the beginning. All of us are blessed to have such a huge platform” – Music director Himesh Reshammiya
“I am very happy to be here at this fantastic event. This is a wonderful victory for India as a top (entertainment) industry” — Israeli actor Aki Avni
“It was a fantastic event. PM Narendra Modi said such encouraging words. He is so visionary. Creative forces from all the states were present here. I call it a huge movement… India is establishing itself creatively as a global power. I believe it is only a matter of time before fantastic initiatives will be taken under WAVES” – Actor Nimrat Kaur
“It is remarkable how the global entertainment and audio-visual industry came together to create this platform. It is wonderful that our PM Narendra Modi was here to inaugurate this event” — Actor Manushi Chhillar
