The inaugural edition of WAVES Bazaar concluded on Saturday, with the marketplace recording business transactions exceeding Rs 800 crore over its three-day period.
According to an official statement, the total valuation is projected to surpass ₹1000 crore in a few days as deal-making was still underway.
The deals struck during the event were across the film, music, radio, VFX and animation sectors.
Key highlights
A key highlight of the bazaar was the buyer-seller market, which alone generated revenue upwards of ₹500 crore, with additional deals expected to close in the coming days. The buyer-seller market witnessed more than 3,000 business-to-business (B2B) meetings at WAVES Bazaar, which was organized under the umbrella of the World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (WAVES).
The bazaar also helped emerging creators pitch their intellectual properties (IPs) to a global network of buyers and collaborators, generating significant interest and fostering new partnerships.
Also, in a major achievement in international collaborations between India and New Zealand, the Film India Screen Collective and Screen Canterbury NZ announced a collaborative proposal to launch the first-ever Indian film festival in New Zealand.
Similarly, paving the way for an India-Russia collaboration, Only Much Louder (OML) CEO Tushar Kumar and Gazprom Media CEO Alexander Zharov have begun early talks on a potential Memorandum of Understanding to collaborate on cross-cultural festivals and co-produce comedy and music shows in each country.
Major deal announcements
Prime Video announced a multi-year collaboration with South Korea’s CJ ENM to distribute premium South Korean content globally. The deal includes streaming in over 240 countries, featuring 28 subtitle languages and 11 dubbed versions.
Another major announcement was of the film “Devi Chowdhurani,” India’s first official co-production with the United Kingdom. A pre-teaser of the film, which is backed by the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, among others, was unveiled at WAVES Bazaar.
(With PTI inputs)
