Creating in India, Thinking for the World

For WAVES to realise its promise, it must stop chasing the West and start shaping its own narrative.

Mumbai recently witnessed the inauguration of the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES) on a grand scale, replete all the pomp and glory such an event deserves. WAVES symbolises an aspiration to elevate both Mumbai and India on the global entertainment map. Not just luminaries from across the entertainment industry, but politicians, industrialists and decision-makers converged for the occasion as they rubbed shoulders with Bollywood stars. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself delivered the inaugural address, encapsulating the summit’s vision in the slogan: “Create in India, Create for the World.”

However, if the ambition is to build something truly grand in the future, it is worth pausing to reflect on how India has treated its illustrious past. Consider RK Studio in Mumbai. Founded in 1948, shortly after independence, it once stood as a symbol of Indian cinema’s golden era. Under the banner of RK Films, the legendary showman Raj Kapoor produced films rooted deeply in Indian culture. His masterworks were admired not just domestically but around the world. Awaara, Jagte Raho, Barsaat, Shree 420, Mera Naam Joker, Prem Rog, Satyam Shivam Sundaram to name but a few. Today, this iconic site has been reduced to a mundane 2BHK and 3BHK residential complex. Or take the case of Bhanu Athaiyya (Bhanumati Annasaheb Rajopadhye), the gifted costume designer behind more than a hundred films and India’s first Oscar winner (for Richard Attenborough’s ‘Gandhi’ in 1982). In her twilight years, she returned her award to the Academy for safekeeping, fearing it would not be properly cared for after her death. As India dreams big for its entertainment industry, it must also honour its past. WAVES, beyond launching prestigious awards, ought to foster an ecosystem that preserves this legacy, an inheritance capable of inspiring future generations.

In his speech, the Prime Minister rightly observed that ancient Indian culture is teeming with stories, and that every village possesses a unique tradition of storytelling. Indeed, ancient texts such as the Bhagavad Gita, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Vedas and Upanishads brim with imagination and narrative depth. Yet references to these works often spark polarising debates. One camp holds them up as proof of India’s advanced scientific and technological past; the other dismisses such claims as exaggerated or fantastical. It is true that certain themes in these texts like missiles, artificial rain, genetically engineered children, test-tube births, plastic surgery mirror ideas found in modern science fiction. But rather than wade into ideological controversies, the creative community envisioned by WAVES would do well to marvel at the boldness of imagination these texts display. That minds were dreaming on such a scale so audaciously and ahead of their time would have made Jules Verne and Arthur C. Clarke proud. Beyond technological parallels, these stories probe the human condition with a psychological complexity rarely matched. Their moral and philosophical messages retain their relevance even today. This alone warrants imaginative presentation to the world.

The Prime Minister, in his address, invoked the mythic origins of Indian music by mentioning Shiva’s damaru, Krishna’s bansuri, and Vishnu’s shankh-naad as reminders of the country’s deep-rooted artistic tradition. Yet in recent decades, much of India’s musical innovation has tilted toward hybridisation: East meets West in a blur of remixed folk tunes and borrowed beats. Too often, creativity has come to mean little more than old wine in glossier bottles or worse, a derivative mimicry of global trends.

The Indian film industry would do well to shed its self-imposed provincialism. Labels like Bollywood, Tollywood and Mollywood are not just inelegant; they are limiting. They tether the industry’s identity to Hollywood, implicitly casting it as a second act rather than an original production. A truly self-confident cultural ecosystem would cultivate its own aesthetic language, unburdened by imitation and free to chart its own course.

The same logic applies to gaming. Much of the sector’s current output caters to the lowest common denominator which is adrenaline, aggression and addiction. Games are often engineered to exploit the reward circuits of the brain rather than expand its horizons. Instead, designers should harness the medium’s immersive potential to foster learning, curiosity and wonder. Age-specific games that inform as much as they entertain could prove just as commercially viable and far more culturally valuable.

WAVES must not confine itself to the virtual or digital realm of ancient stories, films, music and gaming. Its ambition should be to extend into the physical world, merging these narratives with real-life experiences. This could be achieved through tourism, by designing immersive, culturally rich experiences for travellers. Creative advertising can play a vital role in promoting such a tourism model. Ancient tales and their modern resonances can be brought to life at the very locations they reference. Augmented reality offers the potential to seamlessly integrate the virtual and real, creating experiences that are both extraordinary and unforgettable.

The opportunities are vast. For WAVES to fulfil its potential, it must nurture a genuinely creative culture - one that reveres the past, thinks freely and avoids imitation. Only then will it be worthy of its name.

(The writer works in the Information Technology sector. Views personal.)