Whistling Woods International: Bridging The Industry-Academia Gap In Media And Entertainment Industry

By Chaitanya Chinchlikar, Vice President
Whistling Woods International: Bridging The Industry-Academia Gap In Media And Entertainment Industry
Chaitanya Chinchlikar,Vice President

Chaitanya Chinchlikar

Vice President

India is one of the fastest-growing media and entertainment industries in the world, with some estimates showing that the segment is expected to reach USD 100 billion by the year 2030. Despite being one of the sunrise sectors in the Indian economy, Media and Entertainment education remains an afterthought, when compared to other mainstream higher education verticals. Even though media and entertainment education come under the purview of the information and broadcasting ministry, there was no governance structure or framework for higher education in this stream.

Owing to this, education in this vertical has been hugely fragmented which has adverselyimpacted the potential of media and entertainment education in India. To ensure that India’s creative potential is tapped for domestic and global success by educating aspiring students, Whistling Woods International was set up. The aim is to offer worldclass, high-quality education in film, entertainment, and creative arts. The institute is a by-the-industry, made-up-of-industry, for-the-industry institution focusing on creating the next generation of media and entertainment professionals.

Aspiring to be a change-bringer
Whistling Woods International has multiple schools operating under the larger institutional umbrella – School of Filmmaking, The Actors’ Studio, School of Media and Communication, School of Event Management, School of Sports & Esports Management, School of Design, School of Music, School of Animation and Game Design and School of Fashion. Talking about the institute, Chaitanya Chinchlikar, the Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Whistling Woods International, says “With all the hard work and all-round focus on education, WWI today is India’s premier film institute.

About a decade ago, we were rated amongst the ten best film schools in the world by n‘The Hollywood Reporter.’ To the best of my knowledge, there isn’t another Indian Institution that has been rated among the top 10 institutes globally in its segment, except for WWI. We are proud to
be pioneers in several areas of M&E education and all the evangelization we have done of emerging technologies into the education at WWI and educating the industry at large. However, WWI’s biggest achievement is the 3400+ alumni we have graduated, who are working successfully both in the Indian and global media and entertainment industries, with several of them having turned entrepreneurs as well.”

Whistling Woods International is one of the best in the world when it comes to infrastructure and technology on campus. They have coupled this with an innovative education structure, academic pedagogy & teaching methodology Through this, the institute is aiming to educate the Indian media and entertainment education system from the ground up. While Whistling Woods International exposes students to the best audio-visual content that is being created globally, it also ensures that students are introduced to the uniqueness of India’s narrative and storytelling tradition.

“Whistling Woods International is one of the best in the world when it comes to infrastructure and technology on campus. They have coupled this with an innovative education structure, academic pedagogy & teaching methodology”

Academically, WWI’s education ensures that students are prepared for three roles – employment, entrepreneurship, and research. In order to ensure this, in addition to teaching students the art/craft, the technology, and the commercial aspects of the industry, WWI also ensures that a good blend of Academic Theory, Practical hands-on work, and research-oriented thinking is included in the student's education. Further, in order to get the students industry-ready, Whistling Woods International ensures that almost all of their teachers are working professionals with relevant industry experience. The institute also conducts regular industry masterclasses and workshops to enable the students to connect with successful professionals and understand the realities of the industry better.

In order to ensure that means are not a stumbling block for the truly talented and passionate, Whistling Woods International offers multiple scholarship options both at the time of admission and midway through its programs. Admission scholarship programs start from 50 percent of the first-year tuition fees and go all the way to a
scholarship that covers 90 percent of the overall program fees. The mid-program scholarships are primarily merit-based and are for students who do well in the first half of the program.

Sound and music education
Discussing the scope of making a career in the sound and music industry, Chaitanya says, “Today, there are immense job opportunities opening up in the sound and music industry. One of the primary reasons behind this is the use of Ambisonics & spatial audio. Further, people are also more aware today of the importance of sound and music in offering an immersive experience to the audience. Owing to all this, the scope for music, sound design, and sound & music production has increased multifold”.

Whistling Woods International is regularly incorporating emerging media technologies into its education, and they currently have several technology development labs on campus. WWI is a ‘Shot-on-iPhone’ partner of Apple, an Adobe Education partner, and hosts the Sony Media Technology Centre, hosts the WWI Jio Virtual Reality Lab, and the WWI Emerging Media Lab, among others.

Further, WWI has identified the potential of gaming & e-sports in India and, after launching its undergraduate degree program in Gaming 4 years ago, has introduced new UG & PG programs in the operations and management of sports and e-sports.

Chaitanya Chinchlikar, Vice President, Whistling Woods International
He has a multi-faceted two-decade career in the Media & Entertainment industry. He has been instrumental in the evangelizing of multiple new & emerging technologies both into the mainstream education at Whistling Woods and into the industry at large. He has written several papers & articles in newspapers and other Indian & global media outlets and is an active speaker at global seminars & conferences, on the Media & Entertainment Industry, M&E Technology, and Education. He currently serves on the global Board of Governors of the Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers (SMPTE) and was nominated by the Government of India to be on the Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming & Comics (AVGC) Task Force constituted in 2022 to draft India’s National AVGC Policy. He is also a strategic advisor to several startups in the M&E, Technology & Education verticals
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