India OTT Industry Finds Its Global Voice at WAVES 2025, as Shri Ashish Shelar, Mr. Sajan Raj Kurup, and Ms. Amala Akkineni Lead Industry Roundtable

From the launch of WAVES OTT to the Creatorland MoU, the summit draws focus on skilling, monetisation, and immersive content backed by Primus Partners, AWS, and Rolling Stone India

The India OTT industry is entering a pivotal phase of transformation and this momentum was on full display at the WAVES Summit 2025 Roundtable, held at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai. Curated by Primus Partners in collaboration with Amazon Web Services and Rolling Stone India, the event welcomed over one hundred influential voices from cinema, technology, public policy, venture capital, and content innovation.
The Roundtable marked the launch of the joint report Press Play: India’s OTT Story Goes Global, co-authored by Primus Partners, AWS, and Rolling Stone India. The report was released by Shri Ashish Shelar, Hon’ble Minister of Culture, Heritage and IT, Government of Maharashtra, who noted that OTT is no longer confined to entertainment. Shri Shelar emphasized the sector’s intersections with education, gaming, and community-driven storytelling. He also congratulated Shri Gaurav Dwivedi, CEO of Prasar Bharati, for launching WAVES OTT, a digital-first public broadcasting platform that combines archival programming with new-age content. The Minister further revealed the state’s intention to support regional narratives by introducing a Marathi OTT platform.

Mr. Sajan Raj Kurup, Founder of Creativeland Studios and Chairman of Creators Inc, played a key role in shaping the summit’s creator-focused vision. His keynote highlighted the need for sustainable narrative ecosystems, long-term policy commitments, and infrastructure that supports creators from ideation to monetisation. His leadership was central to one of the day’s biggest announcements, the creation of Creatorland, India’s first Transmedia Entertainment City.
The sessions at the Roundtable explored three major themes guiding India’s OTT future. The first dealt with public and private collaboration, particularly the role of national broadcasters like Prasar Bharati in growing India’s multilingual content footprint. The second explored global co-productions, hybrid revenue models, and content internationalisation. The third focused on technology, where speakers discussed how cloud computing, AR, VR, and immersive storytelling tools are changing how content is created and consumed.
In his keynote, Shri Gaurav Dwivedi recalled iconic programs such as Binaca Geet Mala, Hum Log, and Ramayan, which shaped Indian culture through public broadcasting. He described WAVES OTT as a platform that removes geographic and structural barriers, offering creators access to a national and global audience. He positioned it not just as a media product, but as an instrument of cultural participation.

A pivotal moment in the event was the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Government of Andhra Pradesh and Creativeland Asia to build Creatorland. The agreement was signed by Smt. Amrapali Kata, Managing Director of Andhra Pradesh Tourism, and Mr. Sajan Raj Kurup. They were joined by Mr. David Unger, CEO of Artists International, and Mr. Nicolas Granatino, Chairman of Novaquark. Creatorland is projected to attract between ₹8,000–10,000 crore in investment, support over 150,000 jobs, and offer annual training to 10,000 youth in content and gaming technologies.
Smt. Amrapali Kata invited storytellers from across the country and abroad to see Andhra Pradesh as a destination for cultural-tech innovation. She stressed the state’s support for high-quality infrastructure and progressive policies. Mr. Sajan Raj Kurup reiterated that Creatorland is designed not as a traditional film studio, but as a full-spectrum content innovation campus integrating storytellers, technologists, and producers.
As the Roundtable progressed, several influential voices added clarity to India’s evolving OTT vision. Ms. Amala Akkineni, actor, educator, and director at Annapurna Studios, spoke about the need for a structured mentorship approach to nurture regional talent. She called for the creation of institutional funds that can support vernacular content creators who often remain invisible to national-level production houses and platforms. According to her, true decentralisation in storytelling would only happen when regional voices receive equitable access to training, resources, and global reach.

Veteran filmmaker and actor Mr. Sachin Pilgaonkar made a crucial intervention during the monetisation dialogue, questioning the tendency to label platforms as regional or national. He argued that all OTTs in India are Indian by default, and the only distinguishing factor is language. This perspective was welcomed by content creators across geographies and was seen as a call to dismantle centralised industry hierarchies that overlook local success stories.

Also present at the Roundtable were Mr. Sameer Nair, Chief Executive Officer of Applause Entertainment, Ms. Aditi Shrivastava, Co-Founder of Pocket Aces, Mr. Soumya Mukherjee, and Mr. Vishnu Mohta, both senior executives at Hoichoi. Together, they explored the scope of strategic licensing, global IP deals, and the possibility of building co-funded, multilingual franchises from India.
Representatives from AWS India, including Mr. Pankaj Gupta, Mr. Manoj Padmanabhan, and Mr. Nitin Bawankule, brought to light the infrastructure demands of a growing OTT universe. They spoke about how cloud-native production pipelines, real-time analytics, and AI-enhanced scripting tools are transforming creative workflows and content lifecycle planning. These insights were contextualised through case studies showing how regional creators can scale up quality while keeping costs predictable.

Technology-driven production was further addressed by Ms. Mahima Kaul, Public Policy Director at Netflix India, and Ms. Shruti Paul, Creative Strategist at Accenture. They emphasised the growing demand for immersive formats, pointing out how viewer engagement has shifted from linear consumption to participatory and on-demand formats. In this evolving landscape, new genres such as docu-gaming, interactive drama, and regional sci-fi have begun to find scalable audiences.
Also sharing their insights were Ms. Shefali Bhushan, Ms. Kriti Kharbanda, Mr. Vaibhav Modi, Ms. Isha Talwar, and Mr. Vinod Bachchan. Their collective focus was on talent pipelines, the need for regional casting networks, and the revival of creative guilds in the OTT era. Ms. Rituparna Sengupta, Mr. Sandeep Marwah of AAFT, and author Mr. Amish Tripathi each contributed layered perspectives on audience taste shifts, mythological IP, and the importance of including folk traditions in the national content mix.

Closing the Roundtable, Mr. David Unger, CEO of Artists International, and Mr. Nicolas Granatino of Novaquark, spoke about the global receptiveness toward India’s digital creative market. They highlighted how Creatorland’s model, if replicated regionally, could become an exportable blueprint for content-driven economies in Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
As the day drew to a close, the presence of directors and creators such as Mr. Jayant Somalkar, Mr. Om Raut, Ms. Tanvi Dhedia, Mr. Varun Mitra, and Ms. Shobha Sant added tangible credibility to the summit’s ambition. These individuals represent a new generation of storytellers, unafraid to cross formats and redefine audience expectations.
WAVES Summit 2025 did more than launch a report or sign an MoU. It signalled the formal entry of the India OTT industry into a globally collaborative, digitally forward, and culturally rooted phase. With regional creators receiving institutional attention and platforms like WAVES OTT and Creatorland offering infrastructure and vision, India has made its intent clear.
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