Creative champs battle it out for honours in VFX Challenge as World Audiovisual and Entertainment Summit 2025 kicks off
Creative talents congregated at Bengaluru for the World Audiovisual and Entertainment Summit (WAFX 2025) WAVES VFX Challenge, a national creative content competition organized by the central government in collaboration with ABAI that kicked off on Saturday in Bengaluru.
WAFX 2025 is an initiative of the central government’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, and its south zone competitions concluded on Saturday the winners here in the three categories — Students, Professionals, and Enthusiasts — will battle it out for final honours at the Grand Finale to be held in Mumbai.
The Venue of the South Zonal leg of the landmark event of the government, Jain (Deemed-to-be) University, Bengaluru, was buzzing with activity and bubbling with energy as talented and skilled creative persons put on their thinking caps to create high-impact VFX clips of 10-15 seconds in an eight-hour window they got.
Meet the winners: In the Student category, Soumya Das emerged as the winner, with Gagan HP as the runner-up. The Professional category saw Mohamad Javeed as the winner, followed by S. Sai Chandan in second place. Gagan Ajai was declared the winner in the Enthusiasts category.
All category winners will now advance to the Grand Finale at WAVES Summit 2025 in Mumbai, where they will compete for prizes worth up to ₹5 lakhs and gain access to prestigious internship opportunities with leading VFX studios.
Following a rigorous online qualifier round that saw over 1,500 registrations from across India, 14 of the most promising VFX artists were shortlisted for the South Zonal finale.
Following a rigorous online qualifier round that saw over 1,500 registrations from across India, 14 of the most promising VFX artists were shortlisted for the South Zonal finale.
The event marks the first on-ground leg of India’s largest VFX talent hunt, launched as a flagship event of the upcoming World Audio Visual & Entertainment Summit (WAVES), scheduled to take place from May 1–5 at Jio World Garden, Mumbai.
The WAFX-WAVES VFX Challenge is a nationwide celebration of creative excellence, forming a key pillar of the ‘Create in India Season 1’ campaign.
Aligned with the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s vision of positioning India as a global content creation powerhouse, the initiative aims to spotlight the country’s burgeoning VFX talent and empower a new generation of digital storytellers.
Centered around the theme ‘Daily Life Superhero’, participants were challenged to reimagine everyday moments through the lens of visual effects, blending imagination with technical mastery. Their work was evaluated by a distinguished jury panel comprising Mr. Vijay Selvam, DFX Supervisor at MPC Technicolor, and Mr. Rakesh Herurkar, FX Lead at The Mill, Technicolor — both veterans from globally renowned creative studios at the forefront of immersive storytelling.
Speaking at the event, Mr. R.K. Chand, Secretary of ABAI, said, “Today’s zonal round in Bengaluru is a vital milestone in a national journey that began four months ago with the launch of WAFX. From over 1500 entries, we’ve brought the best talent to this stage. The level of creativity displayed reflects the bright future of India’s VFX industry. We extend our heartfelt thanks to Jain University for their partnership and to the Ministry of I&B for their continued support in making this initiative a reality. I would like to thank Mr. Sanjay Jaju, Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, for his invaluable support in bringing the ‘Create in India’ Challenge to fruition.”
The zonal challenge also featured participation and support from stakeholders, representatives from the Ministry of I&B, the Director of Education from ABAI, senior academic leadership from Jain University including Dr. Sagar Gulati, Director, School of CS and IT, Dr. Nelson Mandela, Head of the Department of Animation, and leading creative professionals.
