NEW DELHI: Today is India Day at Mipcom, the largest international audio-visual market place in the world, and a 70-member team from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) is in Cannes to represent the country which has been declared as the ‘Country of Honour.‘
Led by Sony Entertainment Television CEO Kunal Dasgupta who is co-chairman of the Ficci entertainment committee, the team is partnering with Reed Midem to host the India theme opening night get-together to help its delegates garner maximum business advantage and exposure.
Ficci is also putting up an India Pavillion to showcase competencies of a varied range of media companies who will interface with global industry heads.
Mipcom 2007, being held in Cannes in France from 8-12 October, will have audio-visual players from all over the world meet under one roof in order to forge new business deals. It provides a unique opportunity to TV and film producers and distributors, broadcasters, digital media content provider and advertising brands to trade in content across all platforms and share new practices that are redefining business models around the world.
Over the four days of Mipcom, business to the tune of $6-$8 billion is generated for entertainment companies. The India Day is dedicated to India-centric programmes and workshops.
Recent estimates show that the total value of Indian content sold outside India is at $200 million and this number is expected to grow at 20 per cent every year, as India becomes the flavour of the coming decades.
The overseas market now brings one-fifth of the revenues for any major film released in India. Indian films are screened in 110 countries as varied as Peru, US, UK, Malaysia and Australia.
Ficci secretary general Amit Mitra said, "The Indian entertainment industry has outperformed the Indian economy and is one of the fastest growing in India. Revenues from Indian television industry are expected to grow from $4.2 billion to $11 billion to 2011."
Quality content, he added, would continue to be crucial driver for the development of media in India and indeed everywhere.
Two Indian media moguls — Zee Network and Essel Group founder and chairman Subhash Chandra and UTV founder and CEO Ronnie Screwvala - will discuss India’s dynamic and rapidly expanding entertainment landscape.
The FICCI delegation has key players in the media and entertainment space who will address the Mipcom conference as well as attend major sessions and seminars: Sony‘s Dasgupta, B.A.G Films chairperson Anurradha Prasad, DQ entertainment CMD Tapaas Chakravarti, Hungama mobile MD Neeraj Roy, Indiagames founder CEO Vishal Gondal, Ocher Studios director Soundarya Rajnikanth, Anirights Infomedia founder Ashish Kulkarni, Graphiti multimedia COO Munjal Shroff, NDTV Media CEO Raj Nayak and Shemaroo Entertainment’s Hiren Gada.
The delegation also has members from Time Broadband Services and IndusInd Media, among many others.
