Mumbai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday appealed to the entertainment industry across the globe to choose India to create content for the world, making the country a content playground.

“This is the right time, right time to create in India, create for the world. When the world is searching for new modes of storytelling, India has a treasure of stories of thousands of years which are timeless, thought-provoking and truly global. It (stories) is not only about culture, but also about science, valour, fiction, courage…our treasure is huge and to take it to every corner of the world, present it to the new generation is a responsibility of WAVES platform,” PM Modi said while inaugurating the World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (WAVES-2025) at JIO World Centre in Mumbai. Modi said WAVES is not merely an acronym but a real wave of culture, creativity, universal connect, films, music, gaming, animation, storytelling and everything that is part of creativity. “It is a global platform which is of every artist, creator where any youngster will connect with the creative world bringing new ideas,” he said, recalling how 112 years before today, India’s first motion film, Raja Harishchandra, produced by Dadasaheb Phalke, was released.

“I believe that this platform will connect creators and animators to global visionaries. Gamers will be turned into global champions…I welcome global investors to make India a content playground,” he said. Appealing to the global creators, the PM said India has always followed civilisational openness. “Parsis and Jews came from outside and became one here. Welcoming art from across the globe is our identity…To the creators of the world: Dream big, tell your stories.

To the investors: invest not just in platforms but in people, and to the youth: tell your untold billion stories to the world,” he said.

“A few years back, on the occasion of the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, I brought artists across the world together to sing Vaishnav Jana To. It was sung by 150 artists across the world and it brought the world together,” he said.

While highlighting India’s rapid economic growth, PM Modi mentioned that the orange economy has three pillars i.e. content, creativity and culture. “India’s creative economy will add to India’s GDP,” he said. The orange economy refers to economic activities related to creativity, culture and the arts, with the colour orange symbolising creativity and innovation.

The PM also announced that Waves awards will be launched soon and said it will be the most prestigious in the world of arts and creativity. “India had started the Padma award a few years after Independence, but we turned it to people’s Padma. We identified those who are working in the grassroots, among people in the corners of the country. It changed the tradition of Padma and the country has accepted it with an open heart. This is no longer a mere arrangement but a festival of the country. WAVES is on the same lines,” he said.