Keynote by Uday Shankar Vice Chairman_JioStar India

20 Feb 2026 15:00h - 16:00h

Session at a glance

Summary

Uday Shankar delivered a keynote address at India’s first global AI summit, focusing on how artificial intelligence can transform India’s media and entertainment industry into a global powerhouse. He began by congratulating the Prime Minister for centering India’s growth agenda around AI and reflected on his three decades of experience witnessing technology’s transformative impact on media, from personal computers in newsrooms to digital platforms. Shankar highlighted India’s remarkable domestic media growth, evolving from a few billion dollar industry to the world’s fifth largest media market worth over $30 billion, expanding from one broadcaster to 900 channels serving 210 million households and 800 million video viewers.

Despite this domestic success, Shankar argued that India has not yet broken through as a global content powerhouse, unlike smaller countries such as South Korea with “Squid Game” and “Parasite.” He identified key structural constraints preventing global expansion: capital limitations, inability to attract global talent, and primarily domestic audience focus. While Hollywood productions command budgets of $65-100 million, average Indian films work with only $3-5 million, creating a cycle where limited monetization potential restricts access to capital and talent.

Shankar positioned AI as a once-in-a-generation opportunity for India to become the world’s creative capital by revolutionizing three core industry pillars: content, consumer engagement, and commerce models. He cited his company’s AI-powered production of “Mahabharata,” which achieved global production scale three to five times faster than traditional methods. For the industry to capitalize on this opportunity, Shankar called for three commitments: embracing disruption rather than resisting it, developing AI-native creative talent that blends storytelling with technical skills, and creating policy frameworks that accelerate rather than hinder growth. He emphasized that India has unique advantages over Western competitors who are approaching AI defensively due to legacy constraints, positioning the country to lead the global transformation of media and entertainment in the AI age.

Keypoints

Major Discussion Points:

– India’s Media Industry Transformation: The remarkable growth of India’s media and entertainment sector from a few billion dollar industry to the world’s fifth largest market worth over $30 billion, expanding from one broadcaster to 900 channels and reaching 800 million video viewers.

– Global Content Creation Challenges: Despite domestic success, India has not broken through as a global content powerhouse due to structural constraints including capital limitations, inability to attract global talent, and a primarily domestic audience focus, unlike smaller countries like South Korea that achieved global success.

– AI as a Game-Changing Opportunity: Artificial Intelligence presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for India to become the world’s creative capital by fundamentally rewiring the three core pillars of the industry: content production (reducing costs and increasing capacity), consumer engagement (enabling interactive experiences), and commerce (allowing dynamic pricing and new monetization models).

– Strategic Imperatives for Success: Three key commitments needed: embracing disruption rather than resisting it (unlike Hollywood’s defensive approach), developing AI-native creative talent that blends storytelling with technical skills, and creating policy frameworks that accelerate rather than hinder growth while avoiding wholesale adoption of Western regulatory models.

– India’s Competitive Advantage: India is uniquely positioned to lead the AI-driven media revolution due to its deep creative traditions, engineering expertise, entrepreneurial spirit, and lack of legacy constraints that burden Western incumbents, with the potential to increase its global market share from 2% to 4-5%.

Overall Purpose:

The discussion aims to present a vision for how India can leverage artificial intelligence to transform from a domestically-focused media market into a global content powerhouse, outlining both the unprecedented opportunity and the strategic actions needed to achieve this transformation.

Overall Tone:

The tone is consistently optimistic and visionary throughout, beginning with congratulatory remarks and maintaining an inspirational, forward-looking perspective. The speaker acknowledges current limitations and challenges but frames them as surmountable obstacles rather than insurmountable barriers. The tone becomes increasingly rallying and motivational toward the end, culminating in a call to action for India to lead rather than just participate in the AI-driven media revolution.

Speakers

– Uday Shankar: Media professional with over three decades of experience in the media and entertainment industry. He appears to be associated with Geostar (mentioned multiple times as “we” and “our agenda at Geostar”). He has been involved in launching India’s first end-to-end digital news platform, Aajitak, and has experience with introducing digital innovations in newsrooms.

Additional speakers:

No additional speakers were identified in this transcript beyond those listed in the speakers names list.

Full session report

Uday Shankar delivered a comprehensive keynote address at India’s inaugural global AI summit, presenting a strategic vision for how artificial intelligence can fundamentally transform India’s media and entertainment industry from a domestically-focused market into a global content powerhouse. Speaking with the authority of three decades in media leadership, Shankar began by congratulating Prime Minister Modi for positioning AI at the centre of India’s growth agenda and commending the India AI team for their flawless execution in bringing together this seminal forum.

Establishing his perspective, Shankar clarified: “As for myself, I am not here to talk about the technology of AI. Enough debate has happened on that and I do not want to add to the debate on whether we are ready.” Instead, he focused on the transformational opportunities AI presents for India’s creative industries.

India’s Remarkable Domestic Media Transformation

Drawing from his extensive experience witnessing technology’s transformative impact—from the introduction of personal computers in newsrooms to launching Aajitak—Shankar outlined India’s extraordinary media evolution. The transformation has been nothing short of remarkable: within approximately 25 years, India has evolved from an industry valued at merely a few billion dollars to become the fifth largest media and entertainment market, contributing over $30 billion to the economy. The sector has expanded from a single broadcaster at the turn of the century to approximately 900 channels across dozens of languages, with the consumer universe growing from 70 million households to more than 210 million television households and over 800 million video viewers.

This growth has been accompanied by a content revolution, evolving from tentative experiments in family drama to a vast, diverse, multilingual ecosystem serving one of the world’s most heterogeneous consumer universes. Shankar emphasised that this ecosystem has fundamentally shaped the aspirations and ambitions of an entire generation of Indians, with what people watched being as influential as what they were taught. The economic impact has been equally compelling, with major global media enterprises now competing fiercely for Indian viewers’ attention.

The Global Content Creation Paradox

Despite this remarkable domestic success, Shankar identified a critical paradox: India has not yet broken through as a global content powerhouse, continuing to produce and consume primarily domestically. This stands in stark contrast to countries with far smaller populations that have nonetheless captured global imagination. He cited compelling examples: South Korea, despite its smaller scale, gave the world “Squid Game” and “Parasite,” whilst Puerto Rico, an island of merely 3 million people, produced the world’s most streamed artist performing entirely in Spanish.

Shankar argued that India’s large domestic market has paradoxically become a distraction, creating satisfaction with local success rather than driving global ambition. This connects to Prime Minister Modi’s rallying cry: “Create in India, create for the world”—a vision that has remained largely unrealised despite the industry’s capabilities.

Structural Barriers to Global Competitiveness

The analysis revealed several structural constraints preventing India’s global breakthrough. Chief among these are capital limitations that create a vicious cycle: the average Hollywood studio production commands budgets of $65-100 million, with major tentpole productions reaching $300-350 million, whilst the average Indian film operates with just $3-5 million. This disparity extends to television production, where a single episode of a marquee Hollywood series can cost $20-30 million.

This financial ceiling has created what Shankar termed a “paradox of talent.” India possesses some of the world’s finest creative and technical talent, with cutting-edge VFX capabilities that power major global productions. However, these capabilities are deployed primarily to support Western productions, as domestic producers cannot afford these services due to limited monetisation potential within India’s market constraints.

The result is a self-reinforcing cycle: limited capital constrains global competitiveness, which in turn hinders the ability to attract the investment needed to close the gap.

AI as the Great Equaliser

Shankar positioned AI as providing India with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to become the creative capital of the world. He argued that AI serves as a catalyst fundamentally rewiring three core pillars of the media industry: content creation, consumer engagement, and commerce models.

Content Revolution Through AI

AI-powered production is not merely reducing costs—it is unlocking unprecedented capacity to produce more content at higher quality. Shankar provided concrete evidence through his company Geostar’s recent production of “Mahabharata Ek Dharmayu,” a 100-episode live-action series exhibited at the GeoPavilion. This production achieved the visual scale and emotional depth of a global production three to five times faster than traditional pipelines, with significant economic efficiencies. Speaking from Geostar’s experience with $10 billion invested in content over the past three years, he demonstrated that traditional barriers are vanishing, leaving imagination and creativity as the only binding constraints—areas where India’s cultural depth and storytelling DNA become powerful competitive assets.

Consumer Engagement Transformation

AI enables the retirement of the century-old unidirectional model where producers create and audiences simply receive. Instead, AI allows the creation of unprecedented experiences through conversational discovery, interactive storytelling, and regionalisation that goes beyond simple dubbing to capture the authentic texture of India’s distinct markets.

Commerce Model Innovation

Since the first newspapers, the industry has operated with exactly two monetisation models: advertising and subscription. These represent blunt instruments for a market of 800 million viewers with wildly different economic realities. AI makes genuine consumer segmentation possible, enabling dynamic pricing and packaging that reflect how people actually live and consume, unlocking entirely new categories of value.

Strategic Imperatives for Success

Shankar outlined three critical commitments required from all stakeholders to seize this transformational moment.

First, the industry must disrupt itself or be disrupted. Drawing from historical patterns, he noted that when digital newsrooms were introduced, senior editors resisted; when streaming arrived, traditional broadcasters looked away. India currently possesses an advantage the West does not: the freedom to move without legacy baggage. Hollywood approaches AI defensively, paralysed by legal battles and protectionist reflexes. India can design revenue models that work for everyone—writers, actors, technicians, and producers—creating a larger pie rather than a zero-sum game.

Second, India must become the global hotbed for AI-native creative talent. The most valuable person in tomorrow’s media industry will be someone who can conceive world-class stories and command AI tools to bring them to life. India possesses the deepest creative traditions and sharpest engineering minds; the task is to fuse them through focused skilling and upskilling at scale.

Third, policy must serve as an accelerator rather than a brake. Creators need obstacles removed, not roadmaps handed to them. The guardrails established now will have massive multiplier effects on future competitiveness. Shankar emphasised resisting the temptation to import Western regulatory constructs wholesale, advocating for frameworks designed around India’s specific competitive goals.

India’s Unique Competitive Position

The global media market, currently worth nearly $3 trillion and heading towards $3.5 trillion by 2029, presents enormous opportunity. India’s current share is less than 2%, but AI offers potential to expand this significantly. Even a modest shift to 4-5% would represent tens of billions of dollars in new value creation, contributing meaningfully to what the Prime Minister calls the “orange economy.”

Shankar argued that AI shifts advantage away from those with the deepest pockets towards those with the deepest wells of entrepreneurship, creativity, and technology adoption. The significance of hosting the first global AI summit in the Global South at Bharat Mandapam extends beyond symbolism—it represents a fundamental shift in the intersection of technology and media, which has been dominated by a handful of countries and companies for too long.

Conclusion and Call to Action

Shankar concluded that the question is not whether India can become the global media powerhouse of the AI age, but whether the country will move fast enough to claim this position. With India’s stories, market scale, and technological capabilities finally aligned, the race has begun. Rather than merely participating in this new era, India must shape and lead it.

The address represents a comprehensive strategic framework moving from critical analysis of current limitations to an inspirational vision of AI-powered transformation, positioning India not as a follower in the global media landscape but as a potential leader in the AI-driven future of content creation and distribution.

Session transcript

Uday Shankar

Let me begin by first of all congratulating our Honorable Prime Minister on his vision and leadership in centering this country’s growth agenda around artificial intelligence. I must also compliment the India AI team for executing so flawlessly on the Prime Minister’s vision and bringing us all together at this seminal forum. The summit could not have come a day too soon. As for myself, I am not here to talk about the technology of AI. Enough debate has happened on that and I do not want to add to the debate on whether we are ready. Whether we are ready and whether that whole debate of good versus evil. We do a lot of that in our entertainment stories.

But I personally am a big believer in the power of harnessing emerging technologies to transform societies, businesses, and lives of people. Over three decades as a media professional, I have had a ringside view of technology’s transformative impact, starting with the introduction of the first personal computer in newsrooms and the launch of India’s first end -to -end digital news platform, Aajitak. At every stage since, technology has allowed the businesses I have been involved with to operate with speed, agility, and efficiency that fundamentally changed our relationship with audiences. At each of these inflection points, these businesses have been at the forefront of adopting and introducing innovations to Indian people. This has helped all stakeholders. It is exactly because of this adoption of cutting -edge technologies that India has been A late entrant to the world of technology has been a key part of the development of media and entertainment has rapidly become one of the most exciting media markets globally.

The transformation has truly been extraordinary. Within the span of just about a quarter century or so, we have gone from an industry valued at just a few billion dollars to the fifth largest media and entertainment market in the world. We are valued with our economic contribution going to over 30 billion dollars. We have transitioned from one sleepy broadcaster at the turn of the century to about 900 channels across dozens of languages. Our consumer universe has expanded from about 70 million households to more than 210 million television households and over 800 million video viewers. And the content itself has evolved beyond recognition. From a few tentative experiments in family drama to a vast, diverse, multilingual, ecosystem serving the most heterogeneous consumer universe in the world.

In this process, we have built an ecosystem that has fired the aspirations and ambitions of the whole country. The aspirations of a generation of Indians, what they wanted to become and what they thought was possible, have been shaped as much by what they watched as by what they were taught. While the social impact gives me immense satisfaction, the economic and business impact is equally compelling. At Geostar alone, we have invested over $10 billion in content over the past three years, and that will continue to be the case going forward, if anything. Every major global media enterprise is competing fiercely for the Indian viewers’ attention. Those who are not here are not here simply because they could not crack this complex market.

So the key question… The key question is what can AI do for the… Indian media industry that we are already not doing? To answer that, we need to zoom out and look at the broader landscape a little bit. Despite our remarkable domestic progress, India has not yet broken through as a global content powerhouse. We still produce and consume domestically. Compare this to countries with far smaller population, less cultural diversity, and less formidable technological capabilities that despite those, they have managed to capture the global imagination. A small country like South Korea gave the world squid games and Parasite. Puerto Rico, an island of 3 million people, just gave the world the most streamed artist on the planet, performing entirely in Spanish, headlining the Super Bowl halftime show, but gravitating.

Grabbing global attention. These cultures dared to imagine that their stories and their languages could command a global stage, and they succeeded. This is precisely the mindset that the Honourable Prime Minister called for in his rallying cry at Waves last year. Create in India, create for the world. It’s a dream many of us in the media industry have always nourished, but so far it’s just remained a dream. So why have we not been able to break out of the domestic bounds and achieve a larger mindshare and market share globally? In my view, first and foremost, our big domestic market itself has been a distraction. We can get easily satisfied as long as we are getting attention and business in India.

But our ability to translate our abundant ambition into reality has also been constrained by a few structural factors. Chief among them being the capital constraints. An inability to attract global talent and a target audience largely confined to the domestic audience. The numbers make these constraints stark. The average Hollywood studio production commands a budget of 65 to 100 million dollars. A major tent pole runs up to anything, anything up to 300 or 350 million dollars. The average Indian film, 3 to 5 million dollars. And this is equally true of television production. A single episode of a marquee series in Hollywood can cost up to 20 to 30 million dollars. We can only afford to spend a fraction of that.

Because, one, we have the constraint, but two, we are not able to get the capital because our primary market of monetization still remains India. And as a result, it’s become a spiral and we just cannot compete globally in that race. And this financial ceiling has been set. And this has created a paradox of talent as well. India has some of the finest creative and technical talent anywhere in the world. We have created cutting -edge technology and production capabilities in areas such as VFX that power the world’s biggest productions. But these are all deployed to support Western productions. Our own producers and directors who have the quality and the ambition cannot afford these services because our monetization universe is much more smaller and limited.

So when both capital and talent are constrained, the horizon of our content narrows with them. Our films, our television, our music have been made primarily for consumers within the country, or at best, for the diaspora overseas. There have been some exceptions, but they have been made. There have been just exceptions, not a pattern. The result is a peculiar chicken -and -an -egg problem. Limited capital, much of which owes to our status as a developing economy, and a primarily domestic audience constrain our global competitiveness. That lack of competitiveness in turn hinders our ability to attract the capital that would close the gap. This is not to lament what we have achieved. We have done remarkably well with the limitations and challenges that we had, but the opportunity at hand is much larger, much bigger.

AI provides India a once -in -a -generation opportunity to become the creative capital of the world. Not just the back office for the world’s content, but the front office, the producer and deliverer of content globally, the leader, the standard bearer. Because our business is built on human creativity, the media and entertainment sector is said to be the biggest beneficiary of the AI. This is a catalyst that fundamentally rewires three core pillars on which our entire industry is built. Content, consumer and commerce. On content, for decades, the limitations of infrastructure have been a constraint on the business of media and entertainment. Today, that barrier is coming down rapidly. AI -powered production is not just reducing costs, it is unlocking an unprecedented capacity to produce more and offer more.

At Geostar, we recently produced the Mahabharata Ek Dharmayu, the 100 -episode live -action series, which is exhibited right here at the GeoPavilion. We achieved the visual scale and emotional depth of a global production three to five times faster than a traditional pipeline. The economic efficiencies were significant, too. What this tells me is that the old barriers are vanishing. The only binding constraints that are left are imagination and creativity. And a landscape where imagination determines the winner. And a landscape where imagination determines the winner. India’s formidable cultural depth and inherent DNA for storytelling and entrepreneurship has become our most powerful competitive assets. Our agenda at Geostar is clear, to harness these attributes and position ourselves as the world’s leading foundry for stories and creativity.

For consumers, we have an opportunity to retire a model that has been one -directional for a century. We produce, they receive. AI shatters that monologue. It allows us to create experiences that audiences have never had before. We are opening a new frontier in the viewer relationship, conversational discovery, interactive storytelling, and regionalization that goes beyond simply dubbing the capture, the authentic texture of India’s distinct markets. And finally, commerce. Since the first newspapers, this industry has operated with exactly two monetization models, advertising and subscription. These are two incredibly broad. These are two incredibly blunt levers for a market of 800 million viewers with wildly different economic realities. AI makes genuine consumer segmentation a reality. It enables dynamic pricing and packaging that actually reflect how people live, how they consume, what they consume, and what they can afford.

It unlocks entirely new categories of value we haven’t even begun to imagine in the media and entertainment sector. Taken together, the disruption across the three pillars of content, consumer, and commerce form the very engine of the orange economy that the Honorable Prime Minister talks about. The global media market is nearly $3 trillion today, heading to $3 .5 trillion by 2029. India’s share is currently less than 2%. AI offers us the potential to explore our share in this pie. Even a modest shift in our share of global revenue from 2 % to 4 % or 5 % would represent tens of billions of dollars in new value creation and can be transformational for a large segment of our people.

But opportunity and outcome are not the same thing. We need all stakeholders pulling in the same direction. To seize the moment, we need three commitments from everyone. in this country and in this room. First, disrupt ourselves or be disrupted. I’ve seen this movie before. When we introduced digital newsrooms, senior editors resisted. When streaming arrived, traditional broadcasters looked the other way. The pattern is almost always the same. Incumbents defend the fortress until the walls come down and they are buried under it. We cannot afford the same mistake. Right now, we have an advantage the West does not. The freedom to move. The lack of baggage. Hollywood is approaching AI defensively, paralyzed by legal battles and locked in protectionist reflexes.

The incumbents are conflicted and held back by the legacy value that they have accumulated. Luckily, we don’t have such liabilities. We can design the revenue models that actually work for everyone. The writers, the actors, the technicians, and the producers. This does not have to be a zero -sum game. It is a larger pie and everybody, you must share it. fairly and squarely. We can set the global precedent, but only if we lead with ambition rather than anxiety. Secondly, India must become the global hotbed for AI -native creative talent. The most valuable person in tomorrow’s media industry is not a pure technologist, not a traditional artist. It is a blend of both. Someone who can conceive a world -class story and command the AI tools to bring it to life.

We have the deepest creative traditions and the sharpest engineering minds. The task now is to fuse them seamlessly through a relentless focus on skilling and upskilling at scale so that the world looks at India for this exact kind of talent. And finally, policy must be an accelerator. In this early stage of our growth and ambition, it should not become a break. Our creators do not need a roadmap handed to them. They simply need the obstacles removed. because these are early days. The guardrails we set now will have a massive multiplier effect on our competitiveness in future. As we shape these frameworks, we must resist the temptation to import Western regulatory construct wholesale. Look at China.

It’s been very clear -eyed about this. They identified exactly what they needed to outpace the West and build their regulatory approach around that goal. Our frameworks must also reflect our unique ambitions and opportunities. We are sitting in Bharat Mandapam at the first global AI summit hosted in the global south. This is significant in a way that goes far beyond symbolism. For too long, the intersection of technology and media has been dominated by a handful of countries and companies. The tools were always made elsewhere. The platforms were built elsewhere. The rules were written elsewhere. AI changes that equation forever. Everybody is starting at the same place. as far as application to this sector is concerned. When the barriers across the entire value chain collapse, the advantage may shift decisively.

It moves away from those with deepest pockets and towards those with deepest wells of entrepreneurship, creativity, and adoption to technology. And no country on earth is better positioned for that shift than India. The question before us today is not whether India can become the global media powerhouse of the AI age. It is whether we will move fast enough to claim that position that actually rightfully belongs to us. I believe we will. The energy and the ambition of this country always gives me hope. The stories have always been here. Now the scale of our market and the power of our technology have finally aligned, and the race has just begun. This technology is the ultimate leveler.

Let us not just participate in this new era. Let us shape and lead this. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Uday Shankar

Speech speed

151 words per minute

Speech length

Vision for India as a Global Creative Powerhouse

Topics

The digital economy | Financial mechanisms

Agreements

Capacity development | The enabling environment for digital development | Artificial intelligence

Similar viewpoints

Technology adoption has been and continues to be the key differentiator for India’s media industry success, with AI representing the next major technological leap that can transform the sector’s global competitiveness.

Speakers

– Uday Shankar

Arguments

India’s Media Industry Transformation Through Technology

AI as a Game-Changer for India’s Media Industry

Topics

Information and communication technologies for development | Artificial intelligence | The digital economy

While India faces structural constraints in competing globally, AI presents an opportunity to overcome these barriers and establish leadership in the global media market by leveraging creativity and adaptability over financial resources.

Speakers

– Uday Shankar

Arguments

Barriers to India’s Global Content Leadership

India’s Competitive Positioning in the AI Era

Topics

The digital economy | Financial mechanisms | Artificial intelligence

Unexpected consensus

India’s advantage over Western markets in AI adoption

Speakers

– Uday Shankar

Arguments

Strategic Imperatives for Success

Explanation

It is somewhat unexpected to hear that India has advantages over established Western media markets, specifically due to having fewer legacy constraints while Hollywood approaches AI defensively. This represents a reversal of traditional competitive dynamics where Western markets typically led technological adoption.

Topics

Artificial intelligence | The enabling environment for digital development | The digital economy

Policy frameworks should reflect India’s unique ambitions rather than importing Western constructs

Speakers

– Uday Shankar

Arguments

Strategic Imperatives for Success

Explanation

The emphasis on developing indigenous regulatory approaches rather than adopting Western frameworks wholesale is noteworthy, suggesting confidence in India’s ability to chart its own course in AI governance for media.

Topics

The enabling environment for digital development | Artificial intelligence

Overall assessment

Summary

The discussion shows strong consensus around technology’s transformative role in India’s media industry, AI’s potential as a game-changer, and the need for strategic positioning to capitalize on emerging opportunities. There is agreement on both the challenges India faces in global competitiveness and the unique advantages it possesses in the AI era.

Consensus level

High level of internal consistency in the single speaker’s comprehensive vision, with clear alignment across all arguments about technology’s role, AI’s potential, and strategic imperatives. The implications suggest a unified approach toward leveraging AI for India’s media industry transformation and global leadership aspirations.

Differences

Different viewpoints

Unexpected differences

Overall assessment

Summary

No disagreements identified as this transcript contains only one speaker (Uday Shankar) presenting a cohesive vision

Disagreement level

No disagreement present – this is a single-speaker presentation outlining a unified strategy for India’s media industry transformation through AI adoption

Partial agreements

Similar viewpoints

Technology adoption has been and continues to be the key differentiator for India’s media industry success, with AI representing the next major technological leap that can transform the sector’s global competitiveness.

Speakers

– Uday Shankar

Arguments

India’s Media Industry Transformation Through Technology

AI as a Game-Changer for India’s Media Industry

Topics

Information and communication technologies for development | Artificial intelligence | The digital economy

While India faces structural constraints in competing globally, AI presents an opportunity to overcome these barriers and establish leadership in the global media market by leveraging creativity and adaptability over financial resources.

Speakers

– Uday Shankar

Arguments

Barriers to India’s Global Content Leadership

India’s Competitive Positioning in the AI Era

Topics

The digital economy | Financial mechanisms | Artificial intelligence

Takeaways

Key takeaways

AI represents a transformational opportunity for India’s media industry to evolve from a domestic-focused market to a global content powerhouse

India’s media industry has successfully grown from a few billion dollar market to the world’s fifth largest ($30+ billion) through strategic technology adoption

Current structural barriers including capital constraints ($3-5M Indian film budgets vs $65-100M Hollywood budgets), domestic monetization focus, and talent deployment to Western productions limit global competitiveness

AI fundamentally disrupts the three core industry pillars: content production (faster, cost-effective creation), consumer engagement (interactive, personalized experiences), and commerce (dynamic pricing and segmentation)

India has a unique competitive advantage in the AI era due to lack of legacy constraints that paralyze Western incumbents, combined with deep creative traditions and engineering expertise

The global media market ($3 trillion, growing to $3.5 trillion by 2029) presents massive opportunity for India to increase its share from under 2% to 4-5%, representing tens of billions in new value creation

Success requires proactive self-disruption rather than defensive resistance, as seen in past technology transitions in the industry

Resolutions and action items

Industry stakeholders must commit to disrupting themselves proactively rather than waiting to be disrupted by external forces

India must develop AI-native creative talent by fusing creative traditions with engineering capabilities through focused skilling and upskilling initiatives

Policy frameworks should be designed as accelerators rather than barriers, avoiding wholesale import of Western regulatory constructs and instead reflecting India’s unique ambitions

The industry should design revenue models that work for all stakeholders (writers, actors, technicians, producers) rather than creating zero-sum competition

India should leverage its freedom from legacy constraints to set global precedents in AI-powered media production and distribution

Unresolved issues

Specific mechanisms for attracting the capital investment needed to compete with Hollywood production budgets

Detailed strategies for transitioning existing domestic talent and infrastructure to AI-native capabilities

Concrete policy recommendations and regulatory frameworks that would accelerate rather than hinder AI adoption in media

Methods for overcoming the chicken-and-egg problem of limited capital constraining global competitiveness, which in turn limits access to capital

Specific approaches for authentic regionalization and localization that go beyond traditional dubbing methods

Suggested compromises

AI adoption should create a ‘larger pie’ where all industry stakeholders (writers, actors, technicians, producers) can share benefits fairly rather than viewing it as a zero-sum displacement

This observation is profound because it identifies how AI fundamentally changes the rules of competition in media. It suggests that traditional advantages (capital, established infrastructure) may become less relevant than adaptability and creativity – areas where India potentially excels.

Impact

This comment provides the theoretical foundation for India’s potential global leadership, explaining not just what could happen but why it’s likely to happen. It elevates the discussion from wishful thinking to strategic analysis based on changing competitive dynamics.

Overall assessment

Explanation

This identifies the need for research into new business models and compensation structures that can address the disruption AI brings to traditional media industry roles and economics

Disclaimer: This is not an official session record. DiploAI generates these resources from audiovisual recordings, and they are presented as-is, including potential errors. Due to logistical challenges, such as discrepancies in audio/video or transcripts, names may be misspelled. We strive for accuracy to the best of our ability.

Keynote by Uday Shankar Vice Chairman_JioStar India

Summary

Keypoints

Speakers

Rapid industry expansion and market size

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Historical tech adoption driving speed, agility, and audience reach

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Economic contribution and global ranking of the sector

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Limited capital compared to Hollywood hampers high‑budget productions

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Talent paradox: world‑class creative talent constrained by lack of funding

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Major discussion point

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Domestic market focus creates a chicken‑and‑egg cycle limiting global reach

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AI‑driven production cuts costs and accelerates content creation

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Major discussion point

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AI enables new consumer experiences: conversational discovery, interactive storytelling, regionalization

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Major discussion point

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AI facilitates granular consumer segmentation, dynamic pricing, and new monetisation models

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Topics

Disrupt existing practices or risk being overtaken; leverage India’s regulatory freedom

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Evidence

Major discussion point

Topics

Build a pool of AI‑native creative talent blending storytelling and technical skills

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Evidence

Major discussion point

Topics

Craft India‑specific policy frameworks that accelerate innovation without importing restrictive Western models

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Evidence

Major discussion point

Topics

Position India as the front‑office producer of globally resonant content

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Evidence

Major discussion point

Topics

Leverage cultural depth and entrepreneurship to capture a larger share of the $3‑$3.5 trillion global media market

Explanation

Evidence

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Aim to double or triple India’s current global media share, generating tens of billions in value

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Evidence

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Agreement points

Leverage cultural depth and entrepreneurship to capture a larger share of the $3‑$3.5 trillion global media market