YouTube to set up first India production studio with Whistling Woods

YouTube has partnered with Whistling Woods International (WWI) to set up 'YouTube Space', a collaboration and production facility for YouTube video creators.

Slated to open in late 2015, the YouTube Space Mumbai facility will allow YouTube creators and students at WWI to learn about video production, collaborate with other creators, Google said in a statement.

However, the firm did not disclose any financial details.

A film, communication and media arts institute, WWI is a subsidiary of director Subhash Ghai-promoted Mukta Arts. It has recently partnered Taiwan's electronic contract manufacturer Foxconn for supplying equipments and creating a high quality content hub.

YouTube Space Mumbai is the seventh such facility for the Google-run video sharing portal. It has similar facilities in Tokyo, Los Angeles, London, New York, Brazil, and Berlin.

The facilities are designed in a way so that the creators can produce original digital video content, all the way from the start of an idea through to filming, editing, and uploading to YouTube, Google said.

YouTube and WWI will also develop original courses to train the next generation of Indian filmmakers to succeed in digital and online media, it added.

'The new YouTube Space Mumbai at Whistling Woods International is our latest effort to support the incredible wave of creativity we have seen developing in the Indian YouTube creator community over the past few years.

'By working with WWI, we hope to empower India's next generation of digital creators and WWI students to learn, connect, and create new content, by giving them access to fantastic studios and cutting edge audio, visual, and editing equipment,' YouTube Space Asia Pacific Head David Macdonald said.

In the past year alone, the amount of content uploaded to YouTube in India has doubled, he added.

'All our degree and diploma programs now include content creation, audience development and monetisation for YouTube' as part of the curriculum. This partnership with YouTube will allow us to further cultivate the creator community in India, and enable the emergence of the next generation of Indian content creators,' WWI President Meghna Ghai Puri said.