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The Rajasthani puppets are ready for a close-up, while the AI captures spin behind the camera. The Rajasthan AVGC-XR Summit 2026 brought together the old and new worlds of creativity in Jaipur, where over 5,000 makers, students, studio founders, educators and policy makers attended the second edition on 28 October.
Held at the Rajasthan International Center (RIC) on International Animation Day (IAD) on October 28, the summit was organized by Rising AVGC-XR & Media Association (Rama Rajasthan) in partnership with the state’s Department of Information Technology and Communications (DoIT&C). The theme was Weaving the Orange Economy.
The biggest moment came when Ashish Kulkarni, Founder Director of IICT Mumbai and former Chairman and Chief Mentor of Ficci AVGC-XR Forum, received Rama’s first Lifetime Achievement Award. The award recognized his contribution to India’s animation and creative economy for over 35 years. Kulkarni also moderated the Create in India panel, which brings together representatives from industry bodies to discuss the overall growth roadmap for the sector.
Kulkarni shared, “Rajasthan has all the potential to emerge as the creative capital of the world. With strong collaboration between the government, educational institutions and industry, and a government-backed commitment of nearly USD 1 billion to AVGC-XR, India is poised to leverage its soft power and create Create in India globally.”
Puppets finds a new milestone between launching Summit’s intellectual property as Kathputli: Toys and Tales of India It has given a digital face to the traditional puppet of Rajasthan. Jaipur-based entrepreneurs Tatwarth Kala and Divyansh Kala introduced its first characters, Banna Sa and Banni Sa, bringing the centuries-old art form to animation and collections.
Other launches were Shift Festival, a multi-day creative, arts and culture festival in India presented by Ankush Nagpal and Cut.Stage, an AI-powered filmmaking platform from Stage OTT’s Parveen Singhal.
The heritage of Rajasthan also moved off the screen and onto the exhibition floor, where a giant designer cat, Kathputli, walked the runway as students brought the animated characters to life through cosplay.
The program had many storytellers and animation enthusiasts. Vaibhav Kumaresh discusses the nearly two-decade-long journey of self-production Return of the JungleAnd Raj Comics founder Sanjay Gupta and Alpha Comics’ Vasu Gupta explored the future of comics beyond the printed page.
Bestselling author Divya Prakash Dubey led a storytelling masterclass. Rama also paid tribute to Dr. Lalit K. Panwar with Patron Award, Dr. Jitendra Sharma with Mentor Award and Aman Gupta as Young Achiever. Winners of six challenges based in Indian culture shared a prize money of one million.
The summit is based on Rajasthan’s AVGC-XR Policy 2024, which aims to develop the state’s animation, visual effects, gaming, comics and augmented reality ecosystem. Its Atal Innovation Studio and Accelerator (Aisa) follows a hub-and-spoke model, with Jaipur as the hub and hubs in Udaipur, Bikaner and Bharatpur.
Rama co-founder and national founder Nitin Jain said the aim was to make Rajasthan a place where heritage and new creative businesses grow together.
The next edition is scheduled to be held on 16th and 17th October 2027 at Birla Auditorium Complex, the premier multi-acre convention, cultural and scientific hub in Jaipur. The message for Rajasthan is clear: its cultural wealth should not remain a thing of the past. They can find new life on screens, in games and in the global creative economy.
