Media & Entertainment Services in India has emerged as one of the key engines of growth contributing to the creative talent pool of the country and introducing new avenues in areas of film and television production, technology and engineering, said Mr Sudhanshu Pandey, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry in his keynote address at the Session on Building Partnerships in M&E at the Global Exhibition on Services organized by the Ministry of Commerce & Industry in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and Services Export Promotion Council (SEPC). He said that diversifying export services would be the focal point of action for the government.
According to him M&E sector creates an environment which enables better business and trade partnerships. This sector’s performance has not been up to the mark so far due to several factors. First, market access will get better once our storytelling becomes more universal in appeal. Second, language barrier should be overcome by adopting best practices from the Chinese and Korean M&E industries. Third, piracy needs to be eradicated as it devalues the actual worth of an IP and lastly, syndication of content should be the new avenue to generate larger participation and interest from global players. Addressing these issues will help increase access and widen the market base, he said.
Additional Secretary, Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Mr. J S Mathur emphasized that co-production treaties with players like Korea are on and that these will provide excellent opportunities for exchange of knowledge in areas of capital access, technology and skills which will further enable India in becoming the destination for imagination and creativity. He mentioned that it is the government’s responsibility to ensure security of its intellectual properties and to further ensure this the government will be modifying the Cinematograph Act. In the areas of animation & gaming, he said that partnerships are the only way through which the potential of India can be realized.
Mr. Sudhanshu Vats, Chairman, CII National Committee on Media & Entertainment and Group CEO, Viacom 18 Media Pvt. Ltd. shared that Indian Media & Entertainment sector through our movies spread happiness all across the world. He said this in the backdrop of an anecdote he shared where he came across an Indonesian happily singing away a Bollywood song, in one of his travails around Asia. Following economic liberalization in 1991, the private sector met the challenges and grew exponentially to become what is now a market worth over $16 billion. He also shared that today the time is such that it is only with the right push from the Government this industry will grow and prosper.
Therefore, it is essential that policies on clearances be made such that it becomes easy for domestic as well as foreign media to shoot in Indian locales. This will not only help Indian Media & Entertainment sector but also the Tourism industry. He said that all these factors will make India the destination for global film communities to visually capture and use as a backdrop.
On the same subject, Mr. Ashish Kulkarni said that a lack of policy consciousness on cost arbitrage was an area which had impacted the animation industry but now this industry is ready to move forward in leaps and bounds as the government is willing to hand-hold industry from a technology aspect. Mr. K Basi Reddy, MD of Digiquest made a succinct point about how India is the land of creative engineers and how we should revive our ancient methods of sculpting and creation of physical as well as virtual landscapes.
Mr. Ketan Mehta, Filmmaker & Producer, Maya Digital Studios pointed out that once upon a time we started with a ‘slave labour’ mindset which has now changed into a ‘looking outward’ mindset. M&E has a talent pool which caters to co-production treaties and in animation this can prove truly liberating. He urged the government to provide better incentives and tax breaks such that it would enthuse growth within the sector – 10 times more than what it is today.
Mr. Rajjat Barjatya, MD&CEO, Rajshri Productions too shared that India’s online industry has the potential to create content locally for global audiences and it is this skill that will take the M&E segment to greater heights. Mr. Vikram Chandra, Executive Director & CEO, NDTV Group reiterated that product development in the areas of technology and media would become such that India will become the destination for ‘off-the-shelf’ apps and technology products to move the atlas so to speak, that too at a minimal cost.
New Delhi
April 24, 2015