WAVES WAM! finalists to benefit from a Creator Development Grant to nurture and empower the talented creators

After months of regional contests and thousands of entries, finalists from 11 cities across India have been selected to take part in the WAVES Anime & Manga Contest (WAM!) national finale to be held in the World Audio-Visual & Entertainment Summit (WAVES) 2025 at the Jio World Convention Centre, Mumbai, from May 1–4, 2025.

WAM!, organized by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in collaboration with the Media & Entertainment Association of India (MEAI), is India’s first national initiative dedicated to discovering, nurturing, and promoting original Indian IPs in anime, manga, webtoons, and cosplay. These creative pursuits and their creators, who made it to the final round, will get a great exposure in the landmark initiative WAVES 2025 which will bring together global leaders, innovators, studios, and creators to foster India’s creative economy. WAVES which is being held with a vision of “Create in India, Create for the World”, aims to empower Indian creators to dream bigger and reach global audiences. WAVES is India’s biggest platform for the AVGC-XR sector-Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics, and Extended Reality. At the center of WAVES is the Create in India Challenges (CIC). Season 1 of CIC has made history with around 1 lakh registrations, including 1,100 international participants. After a detailed selection process, 750+ finalists have been chosen from 32 unique challenges.

In a significant boost to India’s budding creators, Crunchyroll, the global anime brand fueling fans’ passion and love of anime, has joined WAM! (WAVES Anime & Manga Contest) 2025 as the Title Sponsor. Crunchyball has introduced a Creator Development Grant to nurture and empower the winners of WAM! 2025. This grant aims to support emerging artists and storytellers in anime, manga, and webtoon fields as they develop original intellectual properties (IPs) for global audiences.

Creator Development Grant details are as follows:

• Manga (Student Category) — INR 25,000
• Manga (Professional Category) — INR 25,000
• Webtoon (Student Category) — INR 25,000
• Webtoon (Professional Category) — INR 25,000
• Anime (Student Category) — INR 50,000
• Anime (Professional Category) — INR 50,000

In addition, Crunchyroll will extend its support to Team India, the winners of the WAM! 2025 Finale, as they represent the country at Anime Japan 2026, the world’s premier anime exhibition in Tokyo. This backing will help showcase India’s original creative talents on the global stage.  Crunchyroll, LLC is an independently operated joint venture between U.S.-based Sony Pictures Entertainment and Japan’s Aniplex, a subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., both subsidiaries of Tokyo-based Sony Group.

About WAVES:

The first World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (WAVES), a milestone event for the Media & Entertainment (M&E) sector, will be hosted by the Government of India in Mumbai, Maharashtra, from May 1 to 4, 2025.

Whether you’re an industry professional, investor, creator, or innovator, the Summit offers the ultimate global platform to connect, collaborate, innovate, and contribute to the M&E landscape.

WAVES is set to magnify India’s creative strength, amplifying its position as a hub for content creation, intellectual property, and technological innovation. Industries and sectors in focus include Broadcasting, Print Media, Television, Radio, Films, Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics, Sound and Music, Advertising, Digital Media, Social Media Platforms, Generative AI, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Extended Reality (XR).