The media and entertainment ecosystem is a sunrise sector, which is expected to generate Rs 4 lakh crore annually by 2025 and grow to Rs 7.5 lakh crore by 2030, Union minister Anurag Singh Thakur said here on Sunday. The Minister for Information and Broadcasting also said that the rapidly expanding digital infrastructure in the country and the ongoing advancements taking place in the AVGC (animation, visual effects, gaming, and comics) sector have the potential to make India the preferred post-preferred post-production hub of the media and entertainment industry.
He was delivering the key-note address at the National Conference on 'Changing Landscape of Media and Entertainment 2022' organized by the Symbiosis Skill and Professional University in Pune.
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"The media and entertainment ecosystem is a sunrise sector, which is expected to generate Rs 4 lakh crore annually by 2025 and reach USD 100 billion or Rs 7.5 lakh crore industry by 2030. The government has designated audio-visual services as one of the 12 Champion Service Sectors and announced key policy measures aimed at nurturing sustained growth," he said.
"Many job roles have emerged in the field - video editing, color grading, visual effects (VFX), sound design, rotoscoping, 3-D modeling, etc. Each job role in this sector requires a specific set of skills and competencies. It is imperative for the industry and academia to come together and design programs relevant to the needs of this sector," Thakur added.
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The government is also exploring new partnerships with the private sector to ensure Indian students are in tune with the upcoming technology trends in the sector, the minister said.
Stating that the content creation industry in India has undergone a massive uplift with 'Digital India', Thakur said, "With quality content, easy access and an eager audience, India is ready to narrate its own success story and become a content creation hub."
He said that India was chosen as the first-ever Country of Honour at the Cannes Film festival and the Indian delegation walked the red carpet with a pan-India flavor not as Bollywood as they call it. "I don't like Bollywood, Tollywood terms, it should be Indian film industry. There the diversity was visible," he said.
Speaking about the growing start-up eco-system in India, Thakur said, even during the pandemic, India added as many as 50 unicorn start-ups, "which speaks volumes about India's entrepreneurial spirit".
Thakur said he hopes to see more and more start-ups emerging from the talent pool produced by leading film schools like FTII and SRFTI too.
Oscar and BAFTA award-winning sound designer Resul Pookutty, who was the guest of honor at the event, said the educational institutions should revive the ancient Indian tradition of imparting wisdom to the students to face the outside world, besides developing their skill sets.
"Look at the film like 'Matrix', which has taken the idea of Indian mythology and became a hugely popular film. We have never taken anything from our culture and put it out in the universe and learn or be part of it," he said.
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"Sound is memory and memory is knowledge. Our Vedas are organized in such a way that those are easily memorable sounds. We are a civilization that has forgotten the strength of sound. It doesn't show in our narrative of cinema, artistic endeavor that is the landscape we need to change," he added.
[With Inputs from PTI]
