Mumbai: Entertainment industry heavyweights made clear at the WAVES Summit in Mumbai on Thursday that the spotlight is now moving beyond celluloid to a new crop of creators — digital storytellers, animators, gamers, and indie artists.
With over 100 million such creators, rising investments in AI and a surge of regional voices going global, YouTube CEO Neal Mohan said, the company will invest over Rs 850 crore in the next two years to empower Indian creators, artists and media companies.
“Today, India isn’t just a world leader for film and music. It’s rapidly becoming what I’m excited to call a creator nation. And we have enabled these creators to not only share their passion with the world but also build loyal fandoms and successful businesses,” said Mohan, adding that in the last three years alone, YouTube paid more than Rs 21,000 crore to creators, artists, and media companies all across India.
Even as the digital video streaming platform marked its 20th anniversary of uploading their first video on YouTube last month, Indian creators, Mohan said, exemplify what is special about YouTube. “Their ability to share history, culture, and passion with viewers in every corner of the world,” he said adding how last year alone, content made in India clocked “45 billion hours of watch time” from viewers outside the country.
The local media and entertainment industry is currently pegged at $28 bn and has the potential to grow to over $100 bn in the next decade, pointed out Mukesh Ambani, chairman at Reliance Industries.
Calling for deeper collaboration with global entrepreneurs, artists, and studios, Ambani laid out a roadmap. “India should invest in state-of-the-art content clusters across India. India should train tens of thousands of our young people in animation, VFX, and other technologies. India should incentivize IP creation, AI-powered innovation, and gamification. India should have new investment avenues for this industry,” said Ambani who oversaw RIL-owned Viacom18’s merger with Walt Disney’s local arm Star India, creating a behemoth with 120 TV channels and two digital OTT platforms.
India, now an “incubator” for the transformative power of technology, is well-positioned to tap into tools like AI to propel its creative economy. “We believe that AI is accelerating and expanding the creative aperture even further across ideation, creation, and production,” said Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen. “In fact, we think the next unicorns won’t be applications—they’ll be creators and artists.”
Generative AI, he added, is helping Indian creators break out of traditional formats and explore new ways of working with imaging, video, and text design. “And finally, in India, AI is revolutionizing production by enabling hyper-localised and personalised content tailored to the country’s diverse audience in real time,” he added.