FICCI Frames 2023 kicks off in Mumbai

Its streaming Entertainment, Entertainment and Entertainment at FICCI Frames 2023 in Mumbai at the Westin Hotel in Powai. The most significant three day convention in Asia on the Media and Entertainment industry will conclude today.

For about more than thirty years, FICCI Frames has brought together all stakeholders from Print, Advertising, TV, Films, Gaming, Music, Digital Media and now the OTT platforms. It has panel discussions, fireside chats, exhibitions, workshops and masterclasses. More than thirty Five nations participate in this event every year. For decades, the conference has supported the entertainment world to  move from an `unorganized’ sector to an industry status.

One felt a new level of confidence in the air for India with the Oscar -winning documentary “The Elephant Whisperers ‘ in our kitty  and also RRR’s Naatu Naatu the first song from an Indian film to win an Academy award.  The buzz was `the more local we go with our stories, the more global we can go.’

RRR’s Naatu Naatu wins and Oscar

FICCI Frames  kickstarted with the inauguration ceremony, graced by Indian Actor Ayushmann Khurrana and Turkish Actor Burak Deniz. The theme of this year’s convention is Inspire-Innovate-Immerse, celebrating the evolution of the industry.

The inaugural session of FICCI Frames 2023 celebrated Indian storytelling, analysed the M&E (media and entertainment) sector’s potential as a global soft power. It also laid the intellectual ground to make India the content hub of the world.

In his keynote address, the secretary of ministry of information & broadcasting, Government of India Apurva Chandra spoke about how the government would like to be facilitators and supporters of the M&E industry and help it grow.

“The media entertainment industry in India has reached $46 billion.” Chandra said. But at the same time, it is “a reality check that we are still one per cent of the world. So we have a huge market that remains to be captured,” he added.

“The world is interested in Indian stories and Indian culture. By winning Oscars, it can be observed that our films are appreciated by the world. Then what is it that constrains us? Why is it that we are not reaching world scale?” he asked.

He pointed out two major reasons – manpower and infrastructure. “We would like to work along with the industry to set up more  institutes to get  manpower  on board,” Chandra said. The animation, visual effects and gaming sectors have tremendous potential, and the sector is growing  every year.

Indian Content and OTT platforms

There were some interesting discussions on ..Will the Print Media still survive with the coming of age of digital?  Will PayTV survive the streaming services?

Sushant Sreeram, country director, Prime Video, India, said, “The coming decade belongs to Indian stories, with streaming enabling expansion of linguistic palette and content diversity. OTT has given us the opportunity of taking our content worldwide.

Sushant highlighted that 25 percent  audience of Indian titles on Prime Video comes from outside India. Citing the recently released Amazon Original Series Farzi as an example, he stated that the show was released in 37 languages globally and streamed by viewers in 170 countries. It also managed to enter the top 10 trending lists on Prime Video in multiple countries.

He iterated that entertainment is now becoming borderless with streaming services like Prime Video expanding the linguistic palette of viewers. “Today, over 60 percent of the customers on Prime Video stream content in 4 or more languages while 50percent viewership of local language content comes from outside the home state.”

Nachiket Pantvaidya, Ex Group CEO, Bala ji Telefilms, said – “with the case of Jio streaming IPL free. “If you want to be big in India, you need advertising. Post the IPL going free, the Indian consumer is going to say, ‘Why pay for anything?’ he contended.

In the AVOD vs SVOD race, AVOD has won the race, stated the speaker.  The real game changers would be those who explore the intersection of content with spaces like e-commerce and gaming.

TV versus Digital

Panchvaidya said, “ Firstly, the TV versus digital argument will become obsolete. Every year, 10 to 15 pc of not connected TVs are getting connected.”

Secondly, “This is a country of ‘free’. Data grew because 1GB was given free. The game could go to a very low cost model, with a lot of advertising.”

In conclusion, what emerged from the panel was that  the way the brands are reaching consumers has changed.  Meta’s and Google’s shares have been eaten into by  Amazon. Jio has eliminated intermediaries and acquired the customers by giving IPL for free.

Day 2 at FICCI

The day two of FICCI Frames 2023 started with a spiritual address by motivational speaker and social reformer Dr. Gnanvatsal Swami Ji. This was followed by a virtual address by Minister of commerce & industry, consumer affairs & food & public distribution and textiles, govt. of India Piyush Goyal.

Some of the other notable personalities present were  Jyoti Deshpande, Chair, FICCI M&E Division and CEO, Viacom18; Gopal Vittal MD & CEO, Bharti Airtel; Siddharth Roy Kapur, Former President of Producer Guild of India, Founder & MD, Roy Kapur Films; Mr. Aman Gupta, Co-founder & CMO,  BoAt;  Nikkhil Advani, Director & producer Emmay Entt & Motion Pictures LLP; Rana Barua, Group CEO and Hanvas Group India.

Mr. Anil Kapoor, Indian Actor; Mr. Manoj Bajpayee, Indian Actor;  Ayushmann Khurrana, Indian Actor;  Aditya Roy Kapur, Indian Actor;  Hansal Mehta, Indian Filmmaker; . Megha Tata, CEO, Cosmos Maya; Mr. Devendra Darda, Managing Director, Lokmat Media Group; Harit Nagpal, MD & CEO, Tata Play; Mr Ishan John Chatterjee, Director, India, Youtube; T.V. Ramachandran, President, Broadband India Forum; Abraham Thomas, CEO, Big FM; Rohit Jain, Managing Director, Lions Gate;  Kamal Gianchandani, CEO, PVR Picture Ltd among with other eminent leaders.

Interesting Sessions

 Writing for OTT platforms, The challenge of being a screen Writer, Impact of Generative AI and How to Pitch and write a web series; were some of the sessions.

 Some other interesting panel discussions were on- How are the top influencers changing the game, trending Kids content in the subcontinent, India and Australia Co production, Future of Advertising.

Play on ! is what we say