WAVES 2025: An Unprecedented Confluence of Legends

By Pickle April 23, 2025

For the first time in India’s media and entertainment history, iconic legends, thought leaders, and pioneers will unite at the World Audio-Visual Entertainment Summit (WAVES) in Mumbai to globally spotlight India as the storytelling and creative hub for the world. WAVES is organised by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India.

WAVES 2025 brings the icons of Indian imagination together to ask: what stories do we tell next?

There are summits. And then there are moments that transcend their nomenclature—becoming, instead, chronicles of a nation’s creative imagination, textured with the wisdom of legends and the energy of those still shaping their arc.

Mumbai is all set to host the most powerful gathering in the history of India’s Media & Entertainment (M&E) industry. WAVES scheduled for May 1-4, promises a ground breaking confluence of cinematic legends, global visionaries, industry stalwarts, and policy influencers who will chart the course of India’s creative future.

When Titans Converse

In an extraordinary feat of curation and collaboration, WAVES will be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and bring together a galaxy of icons—from superstars of Indian cinema like Amitabh Bachchan to Mukesh Ambani, Shah Rukh Khan to Aishwarya Rai and Rajnikanth to global tech and media leaders. The sheer diversity and stature of participants across film, tech, advertising, policy, and innovation make WAVES not just a summit, but a historic milestone for India’s creative economy.

Day 1, May 1: Echoes of Legacy and the Energy of the New

Following Prime Minister’s opening address, the inaugural day kicks off with a powerful session titled “Legends & Legacies: The Stories That Shaped India’s Soul”, which brings together a pantheon of cinematic immortals—Amitabh Bachchan, Hema Malini, Mithun Chakraborty, Rajnikanth, Mohanlal, and Chiranjeevi. Moderated by Akshay Kumar, the panel reads like a tribute to the very sinews of Indian cinema.

This conversation will delve deep into how cinema has preserved and propelled India’s cultural core across generations.

Following this is “The New Mainstream: Breaking Borders, Building Legends”, a high-octane panel with director SS Rajamouli, music maestro AR Rahman, and actors Alia Bhatt, Vicky Kaushal, and Anil Kapoor, with Karan Johar moderating. This session will explore how Indian content is shattering geographical and linguistic boundaries to become globally mainstream.

The day’s emotional crescendo arrives with Shah Rukh Khan’s solo fireside chat, “The Journey: From Outsider to Ruler,” moderated by Karan Johar, promising insights into his extraordinary life and cultural impact.

What elevates WAVES beyond a parade of celebrities is its expansive embrace of change. A suite of keynotes will cast light on a future already at our doorstep. Shantanu Narayen of Adobe will muse on creativity in the age of algorithms. YouTube’s Neal Mohan will navigate the contours of visual virality. And WPP’s Mark Read will decode an advertising universe in transition.

BOX:

Mark Read (CEO, WPP) on “The Future of Advertising”
Mukesh Ambani on “Building the Next Global Entertainment Revolution from India”
Shantanu Narayen (CEO, Adobe) on “Creativity in the Age of AI”
Neal Mohan (CEO, YouTube) on “The Global Impact of Video on Culture and Communication”

Parallel sessions in Jasmine II offer insights from talents like Shahid Kapoor, Kriti Sanon, and Lisa Nandy, while an international panel featuring Allu Arjun, Ariane Hingst, and Mary Jorie Millben will discuss India’s rise as a global cultural powerhouse.

Day 2, May 2: Looking Ahead—Technology, Inclusion, and Innovation

Day two opens with a look into the future—a discussion on India as a world studio destination, led by Aamir Khan, Namit Malhotra, and Hollywood’s Charles Roven. It is a vision not of imitation, but of origination.

This is followed by a fireside chat with Kiran Mazumdar Shaw on innovation and India’s global-first startup momentum. Nita Ambani’s keynote will highlight cultural diplomacy through art and storytelling.

A spotlight session by NVIDIA’s Richard Kerris on AI’s role in M&E underscores India’s leap into tech-enabled creativity. These are not fringe discussions. They are the tectonic shifts—quiet yet seismic—that will determine what Indian creativity will mean in the decades to come.

Sessions featuring Kareena Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Nana Patekar and Vijay Devarakonda will explore cinema’s role in soft power, while figures like Sandhya Devanathan and Adam Mosseri underline the importance of digital architecture in shaping cultural narratives.

Day 3, May 3: When the Screens Talk Back

Day 3 will deliver a deeper dive into the machines, markets, and minds that make the magic happen. Kicking off with an invigorating panel on how sports leagues are reinventing themselves in a live, digital-first world, the day will set a kinetic tone—one where innovation is the real MVP.

The baton will be swiftly passed to Uday Shankar, who, in a rare fireside moment with Vivek Couto, will map the Indian media industry’s turbulent yet triumphant journey from liberalization to 2047.

The STEM acronym will get a cultural upgrade in a riveting panel on the real STEM—Sports, Tech, Entrepreneurship, and Media—reminding everyone that the modern content creator is as much a coder as a storyteller. This will be followed by a fireside chat with Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos.

Virtual production will take the spotlight, as Ketan Mehta and a global panel of XR pioneers, including Orbital Virtual’s Brian Nitzkin and Ashish Kulkarni, will explore how green screens and game engines are rewriting the grammar of filmmaking.

Day 4, May 4: From Clay to Cloud

If Day 3 will be about meta-narratives and streaming revolutions, Day 4 will put spotlight on the craftsmanship and clarity. At the Creatosphere Stage, Vince Gerardis—producer of Game of Thrones—will unveil the art of building fantastical realms with gritty realism in a VFX masterclass that left the audience visibly spellbound.

Also, a session on influencer advertising will decode best practices with sharp insights from ASCI’s Manisha Kapoor and Amazon’s Karan Bedi.

The day will also see Dhimant Vyas returning storytelling to its malleable roots with a delightful session on claymation, while Richie Mehta will break down his directing philosophy with candid honesty and gentle precision.

A Truly Global, Cross-Sectoral Gathering

From the future of streaming and OTTs (featuring leaders from Prime Video, Netflix, and Disney) to panels on news credibility, esports, and the storytelling evolution, every session speaks to WAVES’ ambition: to make India a global hub for creative content, production, and innovation.

On Day 2, WAVES’ CIC Awards will honour pathbreaking talent and innovation across disciplines.

Aligning with the Vision of ‘Make in India for the World’

WAVES is not just about the glamour—it’s deeply aligned with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2020 vision to make India a united and inclusive M&E superpower. He wanted India to host a Global Film Summit on the lines of World Economic Forum at Davos when he inaugurated the National Museum of Indian Cinema in Mumbai.

By bringing together stakeholders from filmed entertainment to Silicon Valley, the summit aims to accelerate India’s global creative leadership and reinforce the country’s role as a pillar of the “Create in India, Show the World” mission.

With the most extensive, star-studded, and intellectually robust line-up ever seen under one roof, WAVES 2025 is poised to redefine India’s narrative in global media. From legacy creators to disruptive technologists, the summit will foster partnerships, spark policy shifts, and most importantly, tell the world that India’s time in the spotlight has only just begun.