 So Nitesh, since the time you've done the IPO, what has changed in the gaming landscape? And I'm hoping and I know it's changed for the better. What has changed for the gaming landscape since you did the IPO? Sure. Hi. Good morning, everyone. So for us, you know, we did the IPO right in the middle of the COVID, right? We listed in March of 21. And I think just the COVID push was a pretty strong push on generally people spending a lot more time on gaming, a lot more new gamers coming into the ecosystem. So I think COVID played an accelerating role. Of course, gaming in India is in a secular trend, I would say, for a long time to come. I think from two things, right? I think gaming from within the entertainment industry in India is going to be the largest sector by far in the years to come. I would of course be biased to say that as well, but I think that's the truth. And I think India is really on its way to becoming the gaming nation of the world. We can talk more about it, why that's going to happen. So I think it's been a fantastic time last two, three years, but I really think we're just getting started. Now, Nitesh, also, since I know you personally, you're also my Facebook friend, I know your dad well, and I keep reading your posts and you know, a couple of weeks I can't figure out when you posted that you were when you were very young on one of your birthdays, your dad got you a specific keyboard and a PC, right? And that played a big role in your going down this path. While gaming is a hobby for a lot of gamers, and then becomes a profession, but a lot of gamers are now coming into gaming, seeking it as a profession, you know. So tell us some success stories from gaming, because the big growth in gaming will come from content that is developed for India by Indian companies. We're still very, we are less than 5%, between 3 to 5% in terms of content from India on the app store. So give us a sense of some other success stories, especially of gamers, because ultimately you cannot talk of gaming without the gamers, they are at the content and the gamers are at the heart of the gaming ecosystem. So I'd love to hear some success stories that you come across in your role as the founder of Nadara. Sure. So I think two aspects, right? Founders can be looked at as people, let's say like myself, who started coding games at a very young age and then went on to set up a company. And the success of them and their gaming company, right? Which you've started seeing more and more happen in India. A couple of examples, I would say is Kidopia, which is a company we invested in. Young founders couple year based in Mumbai. Today it's the number one app in the US for that segment of young kids. Tim Cook was here in India and actually tweeted about this app called Kidopia. So you've started to see Indian game developers also go out and compete globally. There's another Bangalore company called PlaySimple, which actually did a fantastic work on word games and actually sold the company for $300 million plus in less than five years of setting it up, right? Bangalore based company. So you're starting to see these successful stories emanate of companies which are now attracting more and more talent, more and more entrepreneurs, as well as more and more equity capital. So I think that's been one success story. I think on the other side, you're starting to see gaming influencers become very popular, have millions of streamers, right? And a lot of the audience here would know about that. And I think they're making a lot of money. And seeing a lot of success, a lot of adulation. We recently hosted DreamHack, which is a gaming festival in Hyderabad. And you know, some of these gaming influencers came and the crowd pull was so much, you actually had to bring in security to manage, right? So they're becoming celebrities, just like our Bollywood celebrities, et cetera. I think there you're seeing that also happen from a consumer perspective. You're seeing e-sports tournaments becoming larger and larger. You're seeing e-sports teams come across, win larger prizes. I think there's a lot happening there in this whole ecosystem. So gaming is in some way a sass, you know, gaming companies are moving towards a sass model, you know, people pay to play games and so on and so forth. The other ecosystem is the advertising branding ecosystem with such sizable numbers. Mr. Karnik talked about it. I talked about it. Do you think the advertising marketing media ecosystem is leveraging gaming for its true power that it brings, the numbers it brings? Honest answer I don't think at all. I think there's been experimentation. There's been, you know, a lot of new ideas that people want to try, et cetera. But I think for the level of attention that gaming gets and even a gamer when he's focused on gaming, he's not watching it passively, he's interacting, his attention is very much and in today's world as you know, getting somebody's attention even for a few minutes is very difficult. So I think a lot more can be done and will be done compared to what it is today. So clearly Nadeesh is saying, and that's why we need, you're doing a corporate tournament for clients, is giving them a glimpse, you can talk about it, but they're interacting and you know, getting a first-hand knowledge will hopefully lead them to use the medium more. Nadeesh, you are at a place where while you're looking at what's happening now, you're also being a listed company, you're also looking at the future. You've made some investments over the last 24 months. Give us a sense of where we are going. Give us some trends that may be very small right now, but as we move along, we'll become bigger and bigger and where is Nazara making its bet? I know you are a listed company, so you'll have to be careful about what you say and how you say it, but give us a broad vision of some trends that all of us can benefit from. Look, I think from a gaming perspective, the time study is super exciting because you have so many big technology shifts happening and that's going to transform the gaming experience. So two, three that I can talk about is one is the whole web three world with blockchain and NFTs. While I know that two years back, it was very fashionable to talk about it and the last two years, given the way that world has got hammered, it's not fashionable anymore, but the reality is that there's a lot of disruption that's going to happen in gaming, because true digital ownership of in-game assets is going to be a game changer, right? So I think that's one big technological shift. I think the second is virtual reality, augmented reality, and I'm not saying it because Apple launched Vision Pro a couple of days back. I think we've been looking at VR at the horizon for at least a decade. Others on my board were telling me to set up a VR studio 10 years back or maybe even earlier. Luckily I didn't, I would have led a lot of money because a lot of these technologies are at the horizon, but sometimes it takes much longer than you estimate for it to come. But especially in the last year or so, at least a sense I've been getting is that that inflection point in VR is really coming and VR will transform the gaming experience because you're going to go from playing a game to being inside a game, right? And that really changes the whole experience. So I think VR is coming very fast and of course now with Vision Pro coming, it's going to accelerate. Of course I know it's very expensive right now, but that's fine, you know directionally where you're going. So I think VR, Web 3, and of course now with AI, right? I think having these AI driven characters inside your game that are going to live inside your game and talk to you just like a regular human being, right, is again going to engage players a lot more. So I think you have three, four technologies coming together into this melting pot which will completely disrupt what you think of gaming today versus what is going to be as early as I would say three years from now, not even ten years from now. It's very exciting, it's also challenging for companies like ourselves, right? Because you have to be able to adapt and move very fast to those trends while still keeping an eye on your quarterly numbers and revenues and profits. But it's exciting times. Nitish, as I said, we as entrepreneurs have looked at, we have to look at our lunch, but we also have to look at, you know, what we'll eat next week, next year, so to say. Specifically, where is the Indian gaming ecosystem investing? Are we getting enough money for game development? Are we getting enough money for gaming startups? What's right? Are the valuations more palatable just now? And especially in overall, in the last six years, five years, Indian entrepreneurs are dreaming big. They're dreaming global. In one or two cases, it may not have gone right, but, you know, in a lot of categories, it has gone right. And you talked with this Bangalore-based company in which Fred Amine was the first investor, you know, selling within five years. So clearly, Indian gaming companies have global potential. Give a sense of what are we doing right as an ecosystem and what we are still not doing right as an ecosystem. So India is a very peculiar market, right? It's a mobile-first gaming market. So the users over the last decade have been very hyper-casual in nature. So today, if you look, there's a big paradox. You have, in the charts, if you look at Google Play charts or Apple charts, India is now ranking number one in terms of downloads all over the world, right? In terms of... 17, 18% of downloads. Yeah. But it doesn't rank in top 10 in monetization. So I think that's the paradox that you're trying to solve. And which is why you don't see enough super-high-quality or AAA games made specifically for Indian market because economics usually do not support it. Now some companies are attempting that and we'll see how it goes. That said, in India, the landscape is really monetized through skill-based real-money gaming, as we call it. Whether it's fantasy sports through Dream 11 or poker or Rummy, which are games of skill as regulated by courts of India. That's obviously gone through the roof in terms of billions of dollars of monetization. Traditional gaming models like Freemium, IAP subscription is still coming up. Advertising is one thing a lot of companies are making money in, but the ECPMs are very low, the fill rates are very low, and we need to find ways to make it better. So I think that's what's happening in the Indian gaming landscape, per se. Esports is taking off pretty well. There's a lot of excitement around that. And then you have another set of companies building in India for the world, where the monetization of portraits is a larger, but then the competition is also a lot more higher. So you have to choose the battle you're going to fight. Absolutely. And what will make sure that monetization is better, where we are 17%, 18% of the downloads, as you said, what will enable this monetization to be better? I think one is a natural progression of the market, which is in any case happening. What was the monetization three years or five years back to what it is today has significantly improved, and what will it be in the next three, five years will be much better, right? India will monetize gaming. There's no two things about it. Like I was saying earlier, it'll be the largest revenue generator compared to Bollywood or Tollywood or whatever it is. So no doubt about that. Gaming is going to monetize. Perhaps higher quality content designed specifically for Indian market may help accelerate this monetization. So what I learned by interacting with game creators early this year was that there is a three, two, four year, five year gestation for gaming content, right? Now, is there a way to bring down this cycle of producing content? I mean, you see what's happened with Generative AI, right? That in itself is one single way that would have accelerated the pace of deployment or execution of ideas to reality significantly. Because if you use these tools, which are also still developing, but if you use a lot of the tools that are available today for graphic creation, 3D creation, design, I think that in itself will accelerate time to market significantly. Now as happens in all content businesses, the Indian language content is a very important driver of growing the market. How are we doing in terms of the gaming ecosystem having Indian language content or the gaming being in the language? See, I again think Indian language is now an easy thing to do. And AI can do that also for you very easily, right? Replicate across the board. So just putting Indian content is not good enough. Getting the right nuances of what the Indian consumer is going to like. And India is not one country. It's many countries. So you have to build individually for these different worlds. Is what's going to really make the difference? What is with the strange names of gamers? I went to a gaming awards last year, and the names were really, really interesting and crazy and really funny. Look, I'm running this company for 23, 24 years. I come from a different generation, so I'm not in that generation to get those names. But yeah, I think that's what's important. I found that to be a whole new world, so to say. And mostly young people, mostly less than 30, a lot of them between 30, 35 years, but mostly less than 30. My last question, if you had to pick up three trends that are relevant to the ecosystem that is represented in these rooms, we represent brands and businesses and how gaming can be intertwined to be able to message to that large audience that is embracing gaming. What would be two or three things that we should keep in mind? No, I think you need to think of the 10-year-old today or the 12-year-old today. For him, the primary source of entertainment and the primary source of also interactive social experiences with his friends is gaming, actually. His world revolves around gaming, whether it is playing games, whether it is watching games, whether it's chatting with his friends, friends within the game, whether it's buying gaming merchandise, whether it's following these e-sports players or these streamers. I think what I find is that this younger segment is growing up. When I was younger, cricket was the biggest thing. It's still big. I mean, you see what's, IPL is still big. But the younger kids, their primary interest is gaming. And I think that's a big culture shift that is happening. And as these kids grow up, that's going to continue to be their primary source of entertainment and socializing. So I think making sure that you're not going to miss out a mega trend, if I were to call it, is very important. I must also say that the next event you for him should do is to get these gamers in the room because they are a different ball game all together, as you know, and we've experienced. We have Nitish here. If you'd like to ask him a couple of questions, we could direct some questions to him. If you have a question, raise your hand. There seems to be no questions, so I'll ask. Nitish, you're a saxophone player. I know that's something that gives you happiness. Is there any similarity between playing a saxophone and running a gaming company? For me, it's always about play, right? So you play a game, you play a saxophone. But I think gaming, when I was younger, now, of course, it's my business. So I don't know whether I can play games to de-stress because it reminds me of my work also. But I can definitely play the saxophone to de-stress. Absolutely. Which are the other gaming companies in India that you admire all across the world? When you look at Nizhara, is there a company? Again, there are different companies and different buckets of the gaming ecosystem, and you're building a unique company because you've invested in some of the players, not when you invested. You invested, of course, Qidopetia. And they applied for an award, and when they presented, I asked them, they told me that revenue, this was two, three years back. And I asked them again, the question, what? How much is the revenue? And they again replied the same. And then they said India was less than 5%, 7%, or less than 10%. It was a sizable number. I don't want to give it to you. Maybe it's public. So which are the other companies that you admire and why do you admire them? Because life is about coexistence. The more this domain grows, the more your company will also prosper. No, of course, I won't name specific Indian companies. They're all my friends, and I don't want to take sides right now. But I think if I were to generalize it a bit, you're seeing a lot of young startups with a lot of enthusiastic entrepreneurs in the gaming space in India. And I was just referring to earlier that India is really, I strongly believe, becoming the gaming nation of the world. When I started this company in 1999, when none of what you have market existed as today, even then my dream was that India will become a very large gaming country, or in terms of the opportunity of gaming in India. I didn't realize that was too early. But today I'm actually seeing that happen. And I think over the next few years we'll be surprised how important this becomes for our country. You're already seeing the government actually take a lot of positive steps towards supporting this industry. They set up the ABGC committee. The Ministry of IT is now very actively involved with Rajiv Chandrasekhar, taking a lot of interest in this space and doing a lot of foundation building, I would say. So I think lots happening. And hopefully you will have names to reckon with emerge globally from India in the next few years. My last question before I let you go. As an entrepreneur, when you start something which is, you're a pioneer, you are a pioneer, you started in a different era when gaming was not being seen as mainstream. Today it is the fastest growing segment in the media and in the entertainment space. You take any report. What are your learnings as an entrepreneur that you may want to? People who run companies, people in the room are also intrapreneurs. I mean, when you run large businesses, what is your advice to professionals in this room to be able to do whatever they do well? I think without sounding like I'm preaching, I think just two points. One is everyone in this room must start up something. I think India is really also the startup nation of the world now getting to be there. And the kind of opportunities and starting up today, you have all the equity capital available, right, from angel investors all the way. There's a lot of money available. So I think if anyone has the entrepreneurial bug, this is the best time to start. Of course, nothing is success is not guaranteed. But you can't get a better time than today to get started on something, whether gaming or anything else, right? And from my experience, if I were to distill all my years of 20 years of ups and downs in running my business, I think the only thing I've learned is very simple that positive intent backed by positive effort at all times, right, is what eventually will make you successful and keep you going. Thank you for saying that sounds very simple. In times of adversity, in times when you're not doing well, to keep your head down and to do that is not easy. Being an entrepreneur, I can say that. But that's the best thing you said. Even in large organizations, when you start new projects, new ideas, you have to be very entrepreneurial. So having the positive intent, believing in the idea and putting your energy in making it happen is really what builds something special. So give Mr. Mithrasen a big round of applause. He's a pioneer in the gaming space and has done a successful IPO and his stock price remains strong. I want to say that, unlike a lot of IPOs where the stock price is really melted if I may use that word, I think that tells you that the fundamentals of the company are strong and they continue to stay by making the right choices in the marketplace of investing in companies that really add to the portfolio they have. So all the best, Nithish. You are a poster boy for us in the gaming domain. I'm sure you and your company will continue to grow and hopefully more and more brands will utilize gaming because of what you do and what all the ecosystem players are doing. Give Nithish a big round of applause. Thank you. Thank you very much.