Careers in India's Media and Entertainment Industry: OTT, Film, Gaming, Advertising and the Managers They Need

India's media and entertainment industry was worth INR 2.78 trillion (about US$32 billion) in 2025, up 9 percent, with digital media crossing INR 1 trillion for the first time (FICCI-EY, March 2026). Careers now split into two tracks: the craft roles everyone knows, and a growing layer of managers who finance, programme, market and run content businesses.

This article is about the second track: how big each segment is, the management roles OTT platforms, studios, gaming companies, advertisers and creator businesses hire for, and how a business-plus-craft degree such as IIM Mumbai's Two-Year MBA (Creative Industries) prepares you. The companion MBA in media and entertainment in India guide covers that programme's fees, structure and fit.

The media and entertainment industry in India in 2025: the numbers that matter for your career

Every figure below is from the FICCI-EY annual reports (2025 and 2026 editions), Ormax Media or government releases, with the period stated. Use them to decide where to point your career, not as a promise of jobs.

Three patterns stand out. Money is moving online: digital subscriptions grew 60 percent to INR 163 bn in 2025 while linear TV advertising fell 10 percent and pay-TV lost 11 million homes. Theatrical is not dead: 2025 was a record box office year despite a 6 percent fall in footfalls, because the average ticket rose 20 percent to Rs 161. And policy can reshape a segment overnight, as the August 2025 real-money gaming ban did.

How many people the industry employs

Headcount is the weakest part of the public data; FICCI-EY 2026 gives none. The FICCI-EY 2025 report, as reported by Factly, projected more than 29 lakh direct and 51 lakh indirect jobs by 2027, with television, film and print's share falling from 62 percent in 2019 to 48 percent in 2027. A Deloitte-MPA study at WAVES 2025, as reported by Storyboard18, put employment at 2.7 million in FY24, passing 3 million by 2029.

OTT jobs in India: programming, partnerships and subscriber economics

With 216 million paid video subscriptions across 143 million households in 2025 (FICCI-EY) and an audience of roughly 665 million (Ormax 2026), OTT is where many new management jobs are. Platforms and their supplier studios hire for:

• Content programming and acquisition. What to commission or license, in which language, at what price. Needs audience-data literacy and deal-making.
• Subscriber growth and retention. Pricing, telco bundling, churn and connected-TV strategy; the CTV audience grew 60 percent in a year per Ormax 2026.
• Partnerships and ad sales. Telco, device and advertiser deals.
• Production management on the supplier side. Line producers, production heads and finance controllers at the studios making originals.

Honest caveat: commissioning volumes move with platform profitability, so openings are less steady than the audience figures suggest, and entry is often through internships or studio-side roles.

Is film production a good career? The business roles behind the record box office

The film segment reached a record INR 205 bn in 2025 with more than 1,900 releases (FICCI-EY), and gross box office crossed Rs 13,000 crore for the first time at Rs 13,395 crore (Ormax). Hindi delivered a record Rs 5,504 crore, 41 percent of the total; Malayalam more than doubled to Rs 1,164 crore.

The volume is large: the Central Board of Film Certification certified 15,444 films (all categories, not only features) in 2024-25 and 71,963 over five years, per a Rajya Sabha reply reported in March 2026. Every one needed someone to budget, schedule, clear rights, sell and market it.

Film production is a good career for managers if you are honest about its shape: project-based, cyclical and relationship-driven. The roles with the most durable demand are executive and line producers, studio finance and rights managers (theatrical, satellite, digital, music and remake rights are sold separately), distribution and exhibition strategists, and film marketing and talent managers. Footfalls fell 6 percent in 2025 even as revenue rose, so producers will be managing fewer, pricier tickets and more windows.

Gaming, animation and VFX: growth, a policy shock and a new national institute

Online gaming was INR 232 bn in 2024 (PIB backgrounder citing FICCI-EY 2025). After the August 2025 real-money gaming ban the segment fell 17 percent in 2025, while in-app purchases grew 15 percent (FICCI-EY 2026). Careers have shifted towards game production, live-ops and monetisation, publishing and brand partnerships.

Animation and VFX was about INR 103 bn in 2024 and grew 2 percent in 2025; studio, pipeline and production management and client-facing producer roles sit alongside the artists.

The government is investing in talent supply. The Indian Institute of Creative Technology (IICT), a national centre of excellence for AVGC-XR, was announced at WAVES 2025 in May 2025 and will have a permanent campus in Film City, Goregaon, with Rs 391.15 crore of central support (Storyboard18, PIB). The government has projected around 5 lakh AVGC jobs (a policy target, not a forecast), and Budget 2026 announced AVGC creator labs in 15,000 secondary schools and 500 colleges.

Advertising and the creator economy: where the marketing managers go

Total advertising reached INR 1.5 trillion in 2025, up 13 percent, with digital at INR 947 bn and 63 percent of the total (FICCI-EY 2026). That shift has pushed agency and brand-side careers towards performance media, short-form video and creator partnerships.

The creator economy is the newest employer. BCG's May 2025 report counted over 2 to 2.5 million monetised content creators in India, influencing US$350-400 billion of consumer spending a year, projected to pass US$1 trillion by 2030; as reported by IANS, it put potential direct ecosystem revenue at US$125 billion by 2030. An ISB-Hashfame study (July 2026) counted 4.12 million creators in 2025, up from 0.96 million in 2020, most now outside the metros.

Creators at that scale need talent managers, brand partnership leads and creator-agency account heads; advertisers need influencer marketing managers who can price, measure and contract these deals.

Jobs after an MBA in media and entertainment: the roles, by segment

These are the management roles a business-plus-craft education points you at; they mirror the career areas named on the IIM Mumbai Creative Industries programme page.

What hiring managers in media look for

Media hiring differs from banking or consulting in two ways: industry fluency counts for more than your degree's brand, and employers want evidence you can ship a project.

• Fluency in the economics of content. How a film recovers its cost across windows; why cost per subscriber matters to a platform.
• Numbers. Budgets, P&Ls, audience and subscriber data; media companies are short of people comfortable in a spreadsheet.
• A portfolio of real projects. An internship on a production, a programming analysis, a campaign you ran, a channel you grew.
• Relationships and judgement. Whether you can be trusted around talent and confidential slates.
• Regional range. With Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu cinema all growing strongly in 2025, managers who know more than one market have an edge.

How a business-plus-craft MBA prepares you

A worked example. A 26-year-old account executive at a Mumbai advertising agency runs creator campaigns worth a few crore a year. She can brief a shoot and read a dashboard, but has never built a P&L, negotiated a rights deal or understood how an OTT platform makes money. The gap between her and a head-of-partnerships role is business education grounded in the industry.

IIM Mumbai's Two-Year MBA (Creative Industries), taught with Whistling Woods International, is built around that gap: Monday-Tuesday at IIM Mumbai in Powai for the management core, Wednesday-Saturday at Whistling Woods in Film City, Goregaon, for media foundations and strategy, across 7 modules, 120 credits and 1,200 hours, with a 60-hour industry internship project. It covers film, television, OTT, gaming, animation, advertising, digital, educational media and podcasts.

The trade-offs are real. It is full-time, so she gives up two years of salary and pays Rs 21,00,000 plus Mumbai living costs, and there are 70 seats and a GD-PI stage. It offers career guidance, mentorship and placement support without publishing placement numbers, so she would build her own route through the internship, the two alumni networks and her agency relationships.

The programme guide helps with that decision; the IIM Mumbai Executive Education hub lists weekend alternatives if two years full-time is impossible.

Frequently asked questions

What are the main careers in India's media and entertainment industry?

Craft careers (writing, directing, cinematography, editing, animation, game art) and management careers (content programming, production and studio management, studio finance and rights, distribution, media marketing, ad sales, talent management and media entrepreneurship). The management track is growing fastest in OTT, gaming, animation, live events and the creator economy, where FICCI-EY shows the revenue moving.

How big is the media and entertainment industry in India in 2025?

INR 2.78 trillion (about US$32 billion) in calendar 2025, up 9 percent, per the FICCI-EY report of 24 March 2026. Digital media crossed INR 1 trillion and is now the largest segment, advertising reached INR 1.5 trillion, and film hit a record INR 205 bn. FICCI-EY projects INR 3.3 trillion by 2028.

Are OTT jobs in India growing?

The audience is growing: FICCI-EY counted 216 million paid video subscriptions across 143 million households in 2025, and Ormax's 2026 report put the OTT audience at 664.9 million with 172.6 million active paid subscriptions and connected-TV viewing up 60 percent. Openings move with platform profitability, so entry is competitive, often via studios or internships.

Is film production a good career in India?

For management roles, yes, with caveats. 2025 was a record year (INR 205 bn segment revenue per FICCI-EY; Rs 13,395 crore gross box office per Ormax) and the CBFC certified 15,444 films in 2024-25. But the work is project-based and cyclical, and footfalls fell 6 percent in 2025. Producers, line producers, studio finance and distribution managers have the most durable demand.

What jobs can I get after an MBA in media and entertainment?

Content strategist, OTT programming or acquisition manager, executive or line producer, studio finance or rights manager, distribution strategist, film or brand marketing manager, digital marketing manager, game producer, animation studio manager, talent or creator-business manager, business development at media houses and OTT platforms, or founder of a production house or agency. These match the career areas on IIM Mumbai's Creative Industries programme page.

What is the salary after an MBA in media and entertainment?

No figure is given here because no named, dated salary survey for Indian media management roles was available for this article, and online ranges mix experience levels and job types. IIM Mumbai's Creative Industries programme lists career guidance, mentorship and placement support but no placement or salary data. Ask anyone quoting a package for the source, year, batch size and median.

Next step

Pick the one or two roles in the segment table that match your strengths and build one real project towards them. For the structured route, see the Two-Year MBA (Creative Industries) programme page and note the IMAT date of 08 November 2026 for the January 2027 batch.