Representatives from India’s entertainment industry joined hands together under one roof to discuss and dissect topics such as piracy, self-regulation, consumption patterns of new age users, evolving patterns and preference of viewers and many more such ‘need of the hour’ topics at Pixels 2018 organized by IAMAI, today. The speakers at Pixels 2018 were unanimous in their views that the way forward for the digital entertainment industry, which is experiencing exponential growth, would be join hands and devise ways to combat piracy.
Mr. Balsing Rajput, Superintendent, Cyber Cell, Maharashtra Police in his speech appealed to the digital entertainment fraternity to work together and help the government fight piracy, intellectual property threat and counterfeiting. He also highlighted the progress of ‘Maharashtra digital crime unit’ which has induced the government to create about 43 police stations to combat digital crimes. 2700 websites were found to be explicitly pirating Indian content that was monitored and among which 153 websites have already been shut thus making major savings for the industry.
Amrita Mukherjee, SVP Legal-digital, Hotstar in a panel discussion on ‘Self-regulation for online content’ said that “Internet is a medium of choice” and also that companies are responsible enough to captivate audiences with good content abiding by the laws of the land. The moderator of the panel Ms. Lohita Sujith, Director Corporate Communications, Motion Picture Association (India) discussed the necessity of a proper balance between industry (entertainment) and user content.
Hiren Gada, CEO, Shemaroo Entertainment said “Pixels is a great event and IAMAI, being an industry body, provides a neutral platform for industry collaboration, opportunities for growth & success”. Speaking about the current state of Digital Entertainment in India, he stated “The industry is at a great position & every company has charted their strategies so we are in for an exciting phase.”
Akash Banerjee, Founder & Creative Head, NAB Digital Media said “I have come all the way from Delhi not to talk but to learn” , he further added “ it will be great fun to know how creators are working as the field is changing every other month”.
Bhuvan Bam, Youtube sensation, singer & actor, stated “Events like this encourage digital creators to come across and discuss their stories, digital right now is something which, if not overtake, can be on par with Bollywood in a couple of years.” Mr. Bam encouraged the digital entertainment industry to promote original and creative contents stating “Content is the king”.
Representatives from India’s digital entertainment industry are participating at this one-day learning and networking gathering along with experts to deliberate on the way forward for the industry. The conference features leading players of the digital entertainment industry, and some of the distinguished speakers included Aamod Gupte, Group General Counsel, Eros International, Karan Bedi , CEO MX Player, Uday Sodhi, EVP-Digital Business Sony Pictures, Kaneez Surka, YouTube Artist, Gurpreet Singh, Co-Founder One Digital Entertainment, among others.