WAVES Bazaar records ₹1,328 crore in deals, emerges as major hub for global creative collabs

MUMBAI: Positioning itself as a leading platform for international business in the creative industries, the WAVES Bazaar — the business conclave of the World Audio-Visual Entertainment Summit (WAVES) — concluded at Jio World Convention Centre, Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC), on Sunday. The four-day event witnessed commercial transactions worth more than ₹1,328 crore across sectors including film, music, radio, VFX, animation, gaming, and web series.

Of this total, an estimated ₹971 crore was generated through over 3,000 business-to-business (B2B) meetings, according to a senior official from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B). “The Buyer-Seller Market proved to be a game-changer,” the official added, highlighting the volume and quality of professional engagements.

International collaborations were a cornerstone of this year’s summit. Among the major announcements was a proposal between the Film India Screen Collective and Screen Canterbury NZ to launch the first-ever Indian Film Festival in New Zealand, marking a significant cultural exchange.

Further boosting Indo-global creative ties, Only Much Louder CEO Tushar Kumar and Gazprom Media CEO Alexander Zharov revealed preliminary talks on a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to co-produce comedy and music shows and organise cross-cultural festivals in Russia and India.

Another highlight was the announcement of a multi-year strategic collaboration between Prime Video and CJ ENM to distribute premium Korean content globally, signalling the growing influence of K-culture on the Indian market. The Bazaar also hosted landmark co-production announcements, including Devi Chowdhurani, India’s first official Indo-UK co-production, and Violated, a project by UK-based Fusion Flicks and JVD Films.

Sanjay Jaju, Secretary, I&B Ministry, expressed satisfaction at the overwhelming response the summit received from stakeholders across the ecosystem — including industry leaders, startups, policymakers, academia, and the public. “WAVES has become a celebration of business, culture, and creative enterprise — a true people’s movement,” he said.

On the sidelines of the event, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis held key meetings with media and entertainment executives. He met Netflix Co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Universal Music Group’s Devraj Sanyal, and Motion Picture Association CEO Charles Rivkin to explore future collaborations in content creation, upskilling, and storytelling rooted in rural Maharashtra.

“Had a fruitful meeting with Netflix’s Ted Sarandos. We discussed India’s potential as a key growth market and explored partnerships with the state for skilling initiatives in the media and entertainment space,” Fadnavis later posted on X. The CM also lauded Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision and praised both the Central and Maharashtra governments for the successful organisation of WAVES, which he attended specifically to show his support.