India must aim for 'global influence, not just domestic scale': Gaurav Banerjee at CII Summit

Gaurav Banerjee, MD & CEO of Sony Pictures Networks India and Chairman of the CII National Council on Media & Entertainment, set the tone for the 12th CII Big Picture Summit 2025 with a clear message: India’s creative industries are standing at a pivotal moment. Delivering his keynote in Mumbai, Banerjee said the sector is meeting “at a moment of profound transformation,” noting that “every once in a generation, an industry gets a narrow window when talent, technology, culture, ambition and confidence align. For India’s creative economy, that moment is now.”

Sharing insights from the CII White Paper, he highlighted the scale of opportunity ahead, emphasising that a “$100 billion Indian M&E industry is within reach,” provided the country acts with “clarity, coherence, conviction, and above all, ambition.”

Banerjee urged the industry to look beyond India’s borders. “Why should our market be only India? Why not the world?” he asked, pointing to the rise of global Indian content and drawing parallels with South Korea’s strategic cultural expansion. He noted that the Korean ecosystem succeeded because “they didn’t just export content, they exported confidence.”

Touching upon recent movies like Mahavtar Narasimha, Banerjee said audiences are ready for “fresh, bold, original stories,” adding that “the real constraint on our growth is not the market, it is the ambition we place on ourselves.”

A significant portion of his address focused on talent and institutions. Referencing Silicon Valley’s evolution, he said, “It was not an accident. It was constructed,” shaped by universities, public–private partnerships and dense creative clusters. He connected this to India’s need for a new creative framework: “We now need to build the IPL of Creativity.”

Banerjee laid out four priorities to unlock India’s next chapter: specialised creative institutions across disciplines, stronger industry–academia partnerships, regional creative clusters, and urgent public–private collaboration. “Institutions are how nations build capacity. Talent is how nations build influence,” he said.

Speaking on the role of artificial intelligence, Banerjee struck a balanced note. “AI will not define creativity. Human imagination will,” he said, calling for responsible innovation in what he described as “the AI Decade.”

In closing, Banerjee reiterated the benchmark India should aim for: “India cannot define success by domestic scale alone. We must define success by global influence.” He added, “If we think boldly, not just about the India we are, but the India we can be, then India will not just grow. India will lead.”