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Indian entertainment industry has huge global potential

DUBAI The convergence of media and entertainment industries and the horizontal integration of media in India have created huge investment opportunities which could have a positive impact on Dubai’s media services industry, said industry experts at a seminar on ‘Media and Entertainment - A Convergence of Business Models, organised by Indus Entrepreneurs Middle East and Dubai Internet City.

“The convergence of media, entertainment and information technology is taking place all over the world with consumers demanding services, that are delivered through the latest technology platforms,” said Pradeep Gupta, chairman and managing director of Cybermedia Group, which has interests in print, Multimedia, market research and education.

Experts believe that after the software industry, it is the entertainment industry that has the highest growth potential in India. “Just as in the case of the software industry, the entertainment industry in India has an ‘unfair’advantage over the rest of the world in terms of cost and quality, which will see global sourcing of entertainment content from India growing exponentially in the next decade,” said Saurabh Srivastava, who is on the boards of several Indian IT companies and chairs Infinity Technologies, India’s leading Angel Venture Funds. The corporatisation of the entertainment industry in the recent years and the government’s encouraging policies including substantial reduction in entertainment tax and 100 per cent foreign direct investment have resulted in a number of new generation entrepreneurs entering the industry with bank finance and venture capital funds. “Corporatisation of entertainment industry is resulting in flow of investment through formal channels. Venture capital investments are viable only when companies are involved in multiple productions. In a multiple production scenario, risks could be spread over a number of productions,” he added.

The Indian movie and television software industry is becoming international with a number of recent Indian productions such as ‘Monsoon Wedding’ and ‘Bend It Like Beckham’ becoming appealing to International audience. “In the case of entertainment industry India has a comparative advantage over other global players because of the huge domestic and regional market. Now the Indian productions should aim beyond the Indian daisphora,” said Bobby Bedi, managing director of Kaleidoscope Entertainment which produced internationally acclaimed movies such as Bandit Queen, Fire and Electric Moon.