Wouldn’t you like to leap into the Sheesh Mahal and sit as a courtier watching Madhubala dancing in Mughal-e-Azam? Or scream in fright in Rampur on Holi as Gabbar and his gang are attacking in Sholay? Or, as Anthony Gonsalves, leap out of the giant egg in Amar Akbar Anthony? Or maybe, visit Shakal’s island in Shaan?!
Or, picture this. A girl is running from a terrifying Adam-Bhediya (werewolf) inside a jungle. She stumbles over a tree root, and plunges into a deep hole. The beast leaps in after her, fangs out, snarling. You are running along with her through this, and you shudder as she screams in terror.
Less than 10 months ago, on Republic Day ‘22, Daler Mehndi captivated the attention of 20 million viewers worldwide, in India’s first-ever Metaverse Concert.
Metaverse refers to the rise of online 3D or virtually integrated environments that provide users access to virtual reality and augmented reality experiences. The metaverse market size in 2022 will be $47.48 billion, and by 2030 it is predicted to reach $678.80 billion. Eventually, the metaverse will transform the fundamental nature of digital media consumption and social interactions.
How does this impact the entertainment industry? With the metaverse, the future is now. Using your virtual self—your avatar—you can enjoy and experience myriad things in the virtual world rather than in the real world. The metaverse will remove physical barriers to allow people to immerse themselves in a 360-degree experience, for example, live rock concerts, undersea journeys, or visiting spaceships without leaving their houses.
For the entertainment industry, the metaverse holds endless possibilities. The future of entertainment in the metaverse is influenced by three key verticals: unlocking individual creativity, exploring immersive experiences and storytelling, and building new worlds.
As the metaverse develops further, new ways to engage creativity will surface. In the future, interoperability of the metaverse will likely bring new ways of storytelling. The metaverse will begin to gain popularity over physical events because it can enable an audience to interact with entertainers in ways that are not typically viable in real life.
With cryptocurrencies becoming more accessible and possibly getting conditional approvals by various governments, cryptos like Bitcoin and Ethereum could rapidly become the currency of choice in the Metaverse. This will bring a death knell to film piracy, with Bollywood’s metaverse content being non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, which cannot be stolen off the internet as the ownership of the content is recorded on an unhackable virtual ledger. Additionally, the metaverse will offer increasingly exciting ways to be a virtual content creator or part of a team of enthusiast producers who will put together metaverse events where traditional storytelling and ultra modern technology will merge. Just as the colour of a black-and-white movie created a media revolution, the leap into 3D will bring fascinating dimensions to well-known stories.
The potential is huge. One of the most talked-about Metaverse applications is building new environments with spectacular settings and dazzling backdrops for any virtual performance, without the cost of travelling to the real locations or making expensive sets that are prone to fires, labour union strikes, and weather.
Metaverse avatars are going to become another key component in creating content with likenesses of celebrities. Actors will be scanned for their meta-avatars, which will be copyrighted. Such avatars will be used to ‘act’ without the real actors being present. The sale of one’s likeness for possible use in a metaverse project would be a significant source of income for both actors and producers. Imagine a deep-fake likeness of a young Dev Anand romancing Taapsee Pannu in Switzerland, all taking place inside a cutting-edge Metaverse studio in Marol or Andheri.
In the future, interoperability will bring new ways for fans to interact with their favourite stars. Future users will have access to subscriptions or tickets on metaverse entertainment and edutech platforms based on their earning and spending potential. This will also have serious drawbacks, and a new set of censorship guidelines and ‘Meta-policing’ will need to be put in place to curb anti-social elements and the porn industry.
Metaverse can give Bollywood, and the entire Indian Film Industry a new-found freedom to create stories customised to the rapidly changing entertainment landscape. This isn’t some cheap green-screen chroma setup, but full-fledged 3D immersion into the location as if you were there.
Essentially, the metaverse will enable like-minded creators from across the world of entertainment to meet up and collaborate on events for paying consumers. Metaverse is the future of entertainment eliminating real-world restrictions, and allowing like-minded people to connect and produce content in synergy.
Captain D Chatterjee is a media consultant, ideator, author and screenwriter. He can be reached at deepamchatterjee@yahoo.co.in