E&M Industry: Going full steam ahead
To say that it was a whirlwind three-day indepth observation of the Indian entertainment and media industry will be an understatement. The who's who of the Indian and international E&M honchos gathered for FICCI Frames 2006. In fact, so overwhelming was the reponse that registrations had to be stopped mid way as the convention hall was full to capacity.
The opening ceremony of Frames 2006 got a touch of glamour when actress Vidya Balan lit the ceremonial lamp along with Tessa Jowell, Secretary, Department of Culture, Media & Sports, Government of UK. The event kicked off with a power packed session with speakers like Tom Freston, President and CEO, Viacom; Tessa Jowell; S K Arora, Secretary, I&B Ministry, Government of India; filmmaker Yash Chopra; Ashok Amritraj, Chairman, Hyde Park Entertainment; and Deepak Kapoor, Executive Director and Industry Leader for Entertainment and Media, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
FICCI President Saroj Kumar Poddar began the proceedings by taking the audience through some of the changes that have come about in the Indian entertainment and media industry, and detailed how FICCI Frames had been able to capture and deliberate on these changes year-on-year.
The FICCI-PricewaterhouseCoopers annual report, ‘Unravelling the Potential of Media’, was released, and this was followed by the release of the ‘Law Book’ authored by Amarchand Mangaldas.
Day One of Frames saw several interesting sessions, including keynote addresses by Viacom head Tom Freston, Azim Premji and Stewart Till, Chairman and CEO, United International Pictures and Chairman, UK Film Council. The sessions covered issues as diverse as animation, managing international icon brands, Indo-UK co-production, among others.
Day One concluded with the Living Legends in Entertainment Awards, which were conferred upon yesteryears superstars Dharmendra and Dr Vyjayanthimala Bali.
The highlights of Day Two included a lively Q&A session between Karan Johar and Ashok Amritraj, and a keynote address by the UB Group Chairman Vijay Mallya, who spoke on 'CEO as the Brand' to a packed to capacity crowd. He also took a dig at the media, saying the media had always inadvertently kept him and his company in the news.
Sessions on gaming, film distribution and marketing, animation and television were held throughout the day. Day Two ended with the FICCI BAF Awards.
Day Three began with a lively address by filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The first session of the day on 'Future of Print Media as Business' had interesting presentations by Aroon Purie, Chief Executive, India Today Group, and Jacob Mathew, Executive Editor, Malaya Manorama.
Digitisation of media and its challenges marked most of the sessions of the day. The final day of Frames began the way it had begun, with a good dose of glamour in the form of Preity Zinta.
