Entertainment: It's happening in India

A not-to-be-missed event for entertainment industry leaders of the Asian region, FRAMES held its sixth annual convention from April 4 to 6 in Mumbai on the theme: Entertainment: It's happening in India. An initiative of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), FRAMES reflected the entertainment sector boom in India and India's rising leadership position in the global entertainment marketplace.

The "Bollywood" film industry is one manifestation of this. Bollywood, with recent international hits such as Monsoon Wedding, Bride and Prejudice and Veer Zaara, represents a particular kind of movie, developed around dance, romance and strong family themes. "Like Hollywood movies, Bollywood movies take us away from our ordinary lives," said Dan Glickman, the President of the Motion Picture Association of America, Inc. attending the FRAMES conference. "Great stories make great movies, in any language and in any culture. There is evidence of increasing cross-fertilization between these two great film capitals."

Rising trend

PriceWaterhouse Coopers' (PWC) 2005 report "The Indian Entertainment Industry: An Unfolding Opportunity," presented at FRAMES, identifies the Indian film industry as the largest in the world in terms of the number of films produced and of admissions to cinemas. India produced some 934 films in 2004, including 254 in Hindi, 208 in the south Indian language of Telugu, and 130 in Tamil. Admissions in 2004, reached a record 3.1 billion, the highest in the world - the United States lags far behind at 1.5 billion. The creative industries sector is one of the fastest growing in the Indian economy, and growth is predicted to continue at an 18 percent compound annual rate. The largest contributor is expected to be the television sector - substantial investments have been made in the pay TV sector - followed by film.

Emerging technology such as digitalization and broadband will pave the way for the Indian copyright-based industries' growth into the next decade. The animation industry and the gaming sector are also...