Amazon India has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government of India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting with the aim of expanding the country’s creative industries.
As part of the collaboration, Amazon and the ministry will help create pathways to nurture creative talent in India, build capacity in film and television institutes, and showcase Indian-made creative content globally.
More of diversity
India’s National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) and Amazon’s global database IMDb will work together to enable discoverability of India’s creative talent by listing their profiles and skills on the platform. Prime Video and miniTV will both work towards offering internships and scholarships to students from Film and Television Institute of India and Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute.
In addition, to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Indian Independence, iconic content from NFDC, state broadcaster Doordarshan and the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) will be shown on Prime Video and miniTV. In addition, it organizes competency-based master classes for students from various film and television institutes and 75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow – an annual talent enrichment program under the umbrella of IFFI, where 75 young talented artists are shortlisted by the Ministry and are selected trained.
Amazon.in will also curate a storefront feature to promote books and magazines of various genres reflecting the heritage of India from the Ministry’s Publications Department. There are plans to expand All India Radio’s reach via Amazon Music and Alexa.
The letter was signed Wednesday at the National Media Center in New Delhi in the presence of Anurag Thakur, India’s Minister of Information and Broadcasting and Youth Affairs and Sport, Chetan Krishnaswamy, VP, Public Policy at Amazon India, and Gaurav Gandhi, VP. Asia Pacific, Prime Video.
The story goes on
Amazon Prime Video’s “Jubilee,” a series set in the 1940s and 50s chronicling the growing travails of India and the rise of the country’s Hindi-language film industry, will begin streaming April 7.
Thakur said: “The partnership would help strengthen industry-academia links by providing scholarships, internships, master classes and other opportunities for students of Film and Television Institute of India and Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute of India and to do so contribute to shorten the period of struggle for the talented artists coming out of the prestigious film institutes of India.”
Krishnaswamy added, “As India’s economy expands at a rapid pace, Amazon is uniquely positioned to contribute to the nation’s growth on multiple fronts, including e-commerce, logistics, digital skills, cloud computing, payments, artificial intelligence and construction the creativity economy. Over the years we have worked with the Government of India to make a meaningful impact at scale through our various collaborations and initiatives.
Gandhi said, “Our rich cultural diversity offers immense potential to fuel a thriving creative economy and promote India’s soft power internationally,” adding that working with the ministry would “stimulate the growth of the industry.”
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