Shah Rukh Khan, Ted Sarandos, Aamir Khan, Amitabh Bachchan, and Rajinikanth are set to headline the inaugural WAVES (World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit) 2025, as India aims to position itself at the epicenter of global storytelling and screen innovation.
The summit will be inaugurated by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. U.K. Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy will deliver a keynote titled “Creative Bridges: Unlocking Power of Cultural & Digital Partnerships Between U.K. & India.”
Sarandos will participate in a fireside chat titled “Streaming the New India: Culture, Connectivity & Creative Capital.”
Shah Rukh Khan will feature in a session called “The Journey: From Outsider to Ruler,” moderated by multi-hyphenate Karan Johar.
The summit’s heavyweight panel “Legends & Legacies: The Stories That Shaped India’s Soul” brings together cinema titans Amitabh Bachchan, Rajinikanth, Hema Malini, Chiranjeevi, Mohanlal, and Mithun Chakraborty — a rare assemblage of cross-generational icons – moderated by Akshay Kumar.
Aamir Khan, among the summit’s most visible speakers, features across multiple sessions. In “Studios of the Future: Putting India on the World Studio Map,” he’s joined by Ritesh Sidhwani, Dinesh Vijan, and Namit Malhotra to discuss infrastructure and India’s readiness for international-scale production. Khan also appears in “Redefining Indian Cinema,” a solo masterclass, and joins the culturally focused “Indian Cinema, Oriental Look” alongside Peter Ho Sun Chan, Stanley Tong and Prasad Shetty.
The event’s programming spans broad thematic ground – from “The New Mainstream: Breaking Borders, Building Legends,” featuring S.S. Rajamouli, A.R. Rahman, Alia Bhatt, Anil Kapoor and Vicky Kaushal, also moderated by Johar, to “Pan Indian Cinema: Myth or Momentum?” with Anupam Kher, Abhishek Bachchan, Nagarjuna, Karthi, and Khushbu.
A panel titled “Future of Entertainment: OTTs fueling innovative storytelling, tech innovations, viewer experiences,” will feature Gaurav Gandhi and Nikhil Madhok from Prime Video alongside creators Nikkhil Advani, Vikramaditya Motwane and Sudip Sharma, while “Stories that touch hearts around the world” will feature Prime Video’s Kelly Day, Disney’s Justin Warbrooke and National Geographic’s Kaitlin Yarnall.
Complementing the headline sessions are masterclasses, investor pitch platforms; panels on gaming, animation and AI; and a women in media showcase.
At an event in London on Wednesday, co-hosted by the U.K.’s Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport and the Indian High Commission as a precursor to WAVES, Nandy said: “In film, fashion, literature, music and the arts, Britain and India lead the world, and together, we are formidable. And so it’s fitting that when I return [to India] next week, we will be seeking to forge a closer cultural partnership, one that will light up the world.”
“The world is entering a new era, and there is a deep sense of disquiet, here in the U.K. and across the world, about what that means. We’re having to normally navigate stormy times. And so much is unknown, so much is changing, but this relationship right now is more important than ever, a relationship that evolves but will always endure,” Nandy added.
Vikram K. Doraiswami, India’s High Commissioner to the U.K., said: “If there is one strand in our long, sometimes complex but very enriching journey together as as as people and as cultures, it has been this the warp and weft of our relationship in culture, in the field of creative arts.”
WAVES 2025 takes place May 1–4 at the Jio World Convention Centre in Mumbai.
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