MUMBAI: The Essel Group and Zee chairman Dr Subhash Chandra shared his views about the Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry by giving a keynote at the Kotak Institutional Equities’ (KIE) Chasing Growth 2015 Forum.

Held on 9 February at Hotel Trident BCK, Mumbai, an hour-long session was a part of the ‘Millennium: Makers of India’ event, where he spoke on the topic - ‘Entertaining India’.

Addressing the audience, which comprised institutional investors from India and abroad, Chandra first spoke about the innovation-led swiftly evolving M&E industry. Citing examples of leading players like Google and Apple, he explained how tech companies are now moving towards entertainment.

He then detailed the journey of Zee from 1992 when it was illegal to run a private TV channel to its current position as a leading player in the M&E industry.

Chandra stated that media has played a crucial role in transforming India to Version 2.0. The growth till 2013 was 2.0 but now it has accelerated to 3.0 and is poised to grow even further.

He said, “We are confident that Bollywood is capable of entertaining Western minds. Through its recent launches like Zee Bioskop in Indonesia, Zee Nung in Thailand and Zee World in Africa, Zee is taking Bollywood to global audiences.”

Other notable speakers on Day one of the event included HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, Hindustan Unilever CEO and MD Sanjiv Mehta and Bharat Forge chairman and MD Baba Kalyani.

KIE's Chasing Growth 2015 Forum is being held in Mumbai from 9-11 February, 2015. 'Millennium: Makers of India' is a part of this event and focuses exclusively on those Indians who have put India on the global map through economic and social empowerment.