Maharashtra cabinet clears Animation, Visual Effects Policy with roadmap till 2050

Mumbai, Sep 16 (PTI) The Maharashtra cabinet on Tuesday cleared the new Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics and Extended Reality (AVGC-XR) Policy 2025 with a roadmap till 2050, projecting the industry to create two lakh jobs and attract Rs 50,000 crore investment over the next 20 years.

Under the policy, dedicated AVGC-XR parks will be developed with world-class infrastructure and special hubs will come up in various parts of the city, including Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Pune, Satara and Nagpur.

The state's AVGC-XR Policy 2025 was approved during a meeting of the state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis.

This is considered an important step towards making Mumbai the capital of the entertainment and tourism sector, a statement issued by the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) said.

The AVGC-XR sector has been granted industry and infrastructure status, it said.

The policy outlines plans up to the year 2050, with an estimated outlay of Rs 3,268 crore. During this period, the sector is expected to attract about Rs 50,000 crore investment and create two lakh new high-technology jobs, it said.

AVGC-XR is an important component of India's Media and Entertainment (M&E) industry, which is projected to grow from USD 27 billion to over USD 100 billion by 2030, generating over 30 lakh direct jobs and 51.5 lakh indirect jobs.

Maharashtra's Economic Advisory Council (EAC), in its vision document for making the state a USD 1 trillion economy, also highlighted the importance of this sector. Recently, the central government organised the international WAVES (World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit) 2025 conference in Mumbai, during which MoUs worth Rs 8,000 crore were signed.

The EAC also recommended a dedicated policy for the sector, similar to Karnataka, Telangana, Rajasthan, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh.

Maharashtra already has more than 295 studios in the sector - the highest in India, accounting for 30 per cent of all studios nationwide. Educational facilities for animation, VFX (visual effects) and gaming are offered by 20 institutes in Mumbai and Pune, the statement said.

The state had earlier declared this sector as an "emerging industry" under its IT & ITeS Policy 2023. Applications of AVGC-XR technology extend across healthcare (medical simulations), education, marketing (immersive branding), defence (simulation training), agriculture and real estate (3D modelling, virtual tours).

The policy envisions Maharashtra as a global destination for AVGC-XR by fostering innovation, entrepreneurship and intellectual property creation.

Dedicated AVGC-XR parks will be developed with world-class infrastructure like motion-capture studios, post-production labs, rendering farms, sound facilities and virtual production studios.

Special hubs will come up in Film City (Mumbai), Navi Mumbai, Pune, Nashik, Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Kolhapur, Satara and Nagpur. These hubs will have AI-based animation, real-time rendering, immersive technologies and metaverse-related applications, it said.

Sixty per cent of land in Integrated Industrial Areas and IT parks will be reserved for such initiatives, with the remaining 40 per cent for residential, institutional and recreational purposes. Additional FSI benefits under IT & ITeS Policy 2023 will also apply.

The implementation outlay for the new policy is Rs 308 crore for the first five years (2025-30), and Rs 2,960 crore for the subsequent 20 years (2031-50), totalling Rs 3,268 crore. An additional provision of Rs 100 crore has been sanctioned for 2025-26.

A Rs 200-crore WAVES Participation Fund and a Rs 300-crore start-up fund for local entrepreneurs have also been approved, the CMO said. PTI MR NP