ABSTRACT
It is now over 15 years since Arthur Andersen collaborated with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry to issue the first ‘Entertainment Industry Report,’ an annual publication designed to gauge the net worth and growth potential of the Indian media industries for the global investment class. Arthur Anderson was supplanted by other transnational accounting services and management consultancies to produce the glossy trade report in association with India’s largest and oldest business organization. Published in March, the report has become a key reference for journalism and cultural policy, a vehicle of industry self-promotion, and an index of the industry’s corporate maturation and the overall economic health of the nation. While each report’s claims on accuracy are widely accepted, this article pays close attention to the visualization of data, reading the reports as critical to an emergent financial logic that jostles uneasily with the history of trade practices in the Indian creative industries.
