The Indian Media & Entertainment (M&E) industry is expected to generate $53 billion annually by 2025 on the back of measures being taken by the central and the state governments to promote the sector, Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting Anurag Thakur said while addressing the India Forum at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes.

Thakur informed the audience of the various measures by both Union and State governments and said while the Centre has envisioned major initiatives over the last 8 years to boost co-productions, film shoots, and film facilitations in India, states like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have formulated their own film facilitation policies and provided co-production opportunities.

"These efforts are aimed at boosting India’s media and entertainment ecosystem, which is expected to generate USD 53 billion annually by 2025," Thakur said.

He also said that artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and immersive technologies such as the metaverse, present immense possibilities to India’s IT skilled workforce. The OTT market in India is predicted to grow at  21% annually to nearly $2 billion by 2024, he added.

This year marks the 75th year of celebration of both the Cannes Film Festival and the establishment of India-France diplomatic relations. Speaking on the importance of Cannes, the minister said that over the years, ‘Festival de Cannes’ has played a significant role in strengthening Indo-French relations.

The minister spoke about the historic highs of Indian cinema and said that Indian content has been ruling the hearts and minds of the global audience and the stepping stone was laid by bestowing the Palme d’Or to the prolific Indian filmmaker Chetan Anand’s film Neecha Nagar in 1946 and a decade later in 1956, Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali won the Palme d’Or. “Today the recognition of our cinematic excellence the world over is set to manifest the country into the ‘content hub of the world.”

Speaking on India’s current presence in Cannes, the minister said: “India intends to give you - the global audience, a flavour of the country’s cinematic excellence, technological prowess, rich culture, and illustrious heritage of storytelling.”

“India’s red carpet presence captured the diversity of our cinematic excellence not only in terms of representation of actors and filmmakers from various languages and regions but also OTT platforms, with a strong presence of music composers and folk artists who have enthralled audiences both young and old,” the minister further added.

He informed the audience about the presence of Indian start-ups in Cannes and said the start-ups from the media and entertainment sector will showcase their technological prowess and pitch to the best from the world of AVGC along with a strong delegation of animation professionals from the sector.

“Government of India officially designated audiovisual services as one of 12 'champion service sectors’ and recently set up an AVGC task force comprising of industry leaders to prepare a policy roadmap for India to take a quantum leap in this sector and position us as the preferred post-production hub of the world," the minister said.

He promised that the government will take all necessary measures to transform India into a global content sub-continent and use the skills of our youth to make India the preferred post-production hub for the AVGC sector, and to that end, the government will speed up co-production collaborations from around the world and also offer the best locations in India for film shoots.

These steps, Thakur envisioned, will in the next 5 years, catapult India into the league of leading quality content producing nations across the globe.