WAVES 2025: I missed it, but not too much

I skipped the World Audio Visual Entertainment Summit (WAVES) 2025, organised by the Union ministry of information and broadcasting (I&B) and Maharashtra government, in Mumbai last week. Not because I wasn’t interested, but because crowds have now started to unnerve me in ways I didn’t expect. Part of it could be a post-pandemic rewiring—spaces that once felt electric now feel claustrophobic. But the other part is harder to name: a quiet exhaustion that comes from dealing with online mobs. When you have spent significant time being dogpiled in digital spaces, offline crowds begin to carry that same strange weight. You start scanning for threats, not connections.

Even as I sat out the first edition of this four-day summit connecting the Indian media and entertainment industry with the global who’s who in the space, at the Jio World Convention Centre in BKC, it unfolded across my feed and in WhatsApp chats—enough to have me oscillating between quiet relief and sharp FOMO.

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There was relief, especially at missing the chaos of pass distribution. Apparently, Day 0 was a logistical mess. Attendees queued for hours to collect the passes they had bought online, only to be sent in circles by unsure volunteers. Some rummaged through heaps of badges like passengers at a lost luggage counter.

Then came the FOMO—the professional kind. I started hearing about an incredible confluence of public policy professionals from across the media and entertainment space. Many had gathered to engage with representatives from the I&B ministry and the Maharashtra government and discuss the policy issues they are grappling with.

The conversation between Instagram head Adam Mosseri and actor Shraddha Kapoor on trends and virality and how Gen Z consumes content on Day 2 was widely discussed for falling short of audience expectations. A delegate remarked it felt like a poorly matched influencer collab. Another shared a story about a young creator, brimming with hustle, who managed to chase Mosseri between sessions and squeeze in a quick interview, asking pointed questions about content creation and Instagram’s new “Edit” app. That made me wish I’d been there too, and maybe asked questions about algorithmic opacity, shadow banning, content moderation, or Meta’s mounting antitrust woes.

A few delegates spoke highly of Aamir Khan’s masterclass on the art of acting on Day 3, calling it open, immersive and reflective. He took multiple audience questions and spoke candidly about the future of filmmaking and showbiz in an age shaped by metrics and machines.

Overall, the summit seemed to mirror the current internet: overwhelming, overstimulated and near-impossible to keep up with. The first two days were packed with overlapping sessions. Attendees were spoilt for choice. Many drifted between sessions, some leaving within 10-15 minutes, just long enough to post a photo or network. The last two days were markedly quieter—fewer celebrities, fewer footfalls, but sharp conversations still, like the one between Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos and actor Saif Ali Khan on creating content for streaming platforms for the new India.

All the chatter also made me conclude that maybe next time, I don’t have to skip the entire event, just some parts of it. Much like being online, maybe the trick is to curate the chaos, catch what’s meaningful, and log off before the overwhelm sets in—even in the offline world.

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