Mumbai: At the Waves 2025 Summit, Uday Shankar, Vice Chairman of JioStar and Co-founder of Bodhi Tree Systems, delivered a powerful address reflecting on the transformative journey of India’s video entertainment industry. Drawing from his three decades of experience, Shankar’s speech provided insights not just into the evolution of the sector but also offered a forward-thinking roadmap for the future of Indian media, with a keen eye on global expansion.
A Three-Decade Evolution: From Satellite Pioneers to Streaming Behemoths
Shankar traced the birth of India’s video entertainment boom to the early 1990s when satellite television first disrupted a tightly controlled broadcast ecosystem. “Satellite TV sneaked in,” he recalled, “at a time when regulation was either absent or ineffective.” What followed was a revolution driven more by local ingenuity and entrepreneurship than foreign investment or policy support.
Despite being seen as a low-value market globally, India’s affordability and accessibility turned video entertainment into a mass phenomenon. By the early 2000s, television had penetrated every corner of the country. “In just a decade, we created a ubiquitous video consumption market,” he remarked during his address at the Waves 2025 Summit.
The next wave came with the digital revolution, spearheaded by the rollout of 4G and the launch of platforms like Hotstar. Streaming content, once the preserve of a niche audience, suddenly became a national habit. Today, India boasts over 700 million video consumers, with platforms like JioStar attracting over 500 million users—many of them paid subscribers.
Content vs. Distribution: A Growing Asymmetry
While India’s digital distribution capabilities are world-class, Shankar warned that content creation hasn’t kept pace. “In areas like sports, we’ve exceeded expectations,” he acknowledged. “But too often, we import formats and ideas that don’t resonate locally.” He called for a massive localization push—not just in major regional languages, but also in dialects like Bhojpuri and Haryanvi—to truly reflect India’s diversity and unlock untapped markets.
Moreover, content must be crafted not just for domestic consumption but with an eye toward global distribution. “Indian stories should travel,” he emphasized during the summit, “but that won’t happen if we continue to copy Western models.”
Talent and Infrastructure: The Real Bottlenecks
While capital is flowing into the sector, Shankar identified talent and infrastructure as the critical constraints. “You cannot serve 750 million viewers with the same pool of 5,000–6,000 creators,” he argued. India needs a pipeline of young, diverse storytellers, producers, and directors who can bring fresh perspectives to the screen.
He also highlighted the stagnation in Hindi cinema, contrasting it with the creative vibrancy of the South Indian film industry. “Bollywood is stuck in a time warp,” he lamented, citing its insular networks and aging talent pool. With 65% of Indians under 35, he believes the industry needs to reflect its audience demographically and culturally.
Investments: Thinking Beyond Global Dollars
Despite the entry of global giants, Shankar emphasized that India’s media growth story is still largely driven from within. His company alone has committed over ₹87,000 crore (~$10 billion) in content creation across 2024 to 2026. “This is not capital chasing valuation,” he stressed during his speech at Waves 2025. “This is investment with a clear focus on Indian audiences.”
He also challenged the narrative that pay TV is dying in India. “We’ve added subscribers by backing the platform with the right content,” he said. Similarly, the belief that Indian consumers won’t pay for streaming is outdated. With the right pricing and value proposition, subscription growth has become not only possible but scalable.
Rethinking Monetization Models
For all the innovation in content and distribution, Shankar believes monetization is lagging behind. The industry remains overly reliant on outdated advertising and subscription models, even as revenue pressures mount from short-form video platforms and e-commerce. “We need to reimagine how we monetize content,” he urged during the summit, pointing to the need for new formats, products, and ecosystem-wide innovation.
The Road Ahead: Scaling to Global Heights
Looking forward, Shankar sees vast potential: from 90 million TV households and 100 million streaming subscriptions today, he anticipates a tripling of that base over the next decade. But the key to unlocking this growth lies in three pillars: deeper distribution, scalable content creation, and stronger creative infrastructure.
“Our screen entertainment industry is at $30 billion,” he concluded during his speech at Waves 2025. “The U.S. is at $200 billion, China at $75 billion. There’s no reason why India can’t match or even exceed those numbers—if we invest in our people, our platforms, and most importantly, our stories.”
(Views are personal)
