Amazon India has signed a Letter of Engagement (LoE) with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (MIB), Government of India, for a multi-layered collaboration.
The LoE will help build pathways to promote creative talent in India, create capacity within imminent institutes and platforms (such as Film and Television Institute of India and Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute) and construct a route to globally showcase Made in India creative content. Anurag Singh Thakur, Union Minister for Information & Broadcasting and Youth Affairs & Sports, Government of India, said, "The partnership with Amazon India is unique on a number of counts and the Letter of Engagement spans across various aspects of the creative industry." Here’s what you need to know.
Celebrating India's cultural mosaic
- National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) and Amazon will enable discoverability of Indian talent through IMDb.
- Prime Video and miniTV will work towards creating internships, and scholarship opportunities for students at Film and Television Institute of India and Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute. Also, masterclasses will be curated for students and people selected under MIB’s 75 Creative Minds of Tomorrow, an initiative that aims to identify and nurture young creative talent in filmmaking.
- Iconic content from NFDC, Doordarshan and International Film Festival of India will showcased on Prime Video and miniTV to commemorate Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav.
- A special storefront on Amazon.in will be curated to list books and other MIB publications.
- Alexa in collaboration with Prasar Bharati will help disseminate news bulletins, educational content and historical speeches of India’s Prime Ministers and Presidents.
- Amazon Music and Alexa will disseminate diverse Indian music content.
The LoE was signed at New Delhi today in the presence of Anurag Thakur, Chetan Krishnaswamy, Vice President Public Policy at Amazon India, and Gaurav Gandhi, Vice President, Asia Pacific, Prime Video.
Varun Dhawan's perspective
Actor Varun Dhawan, who is also Prime Bae for Prime Video, said, “For any artist, the ultimate dream is to be recognized for our work. Thanks to streaming services like Prime Video, today, even people in the remotest corners of the world are dancing to our music and repeating our dialogues. A collaboration of this nature helps us all work towards redefining what it means to be an Indian on the global entertainment stage.”
A holistic collaboration
“Our rich cultural diversity offers immense potential, to drive a thriving creative economy and further India’s soft- power, internationally. Our holistic collaboration with MIB, looks at every life stage and every-corner of integration to stimulate the growth of the industry, and we are very optimistic of the pathways that it will create,” said Amazon's Gaurav Gandhi. Amazon will bring forth its deep-expertise, technological prowess as a commerce hub and expansive global entertainment distribution services to the collaboration. “As the Indian economy expands at a fast-clip, Amazon is uniquely placed to contribute to the nation’s growth journey on multiple fronts including e-commerce, logistics, digital skilling, cloud computing, payments, artificial intelligence and in building the creative economy,” said Amazon's Chetan Krishnaswamy.
