Whistling Woods International (WWI) welcomed their first batch of MBA in Media & Entertainment students from Manipal University. An MBA course designed and developed jointly by WWI and Manipal University, had introduced India's first MBA (M&E) degree course in media & entertainment last year.

Czars from the media & entertainment Industry like Ronnie Screwvala, Sunil Darshan, Manmohan Shetty, Ramesh Sippy, Ketan Mehta, John Mathew Mathan and Sanjay Chel, were present as guests to endorse this one of its kind International MBA Degree course.

The two year MBA (M&E) program has management level specialization in Film and Broadcasting. As per the course design, first year of the program is conducted at the Manipal University campus in Bangalore, which comprises of general management subjects. The final year of the program involves 'Hands On' training at Whistling Woods International.

Welcoming the first batch Mr. Subhash Ghai, Founder and Chairman, WWI said, "This is a momentous period for WWI to welcome the first batch of management students into WWI campus. We are proud to be associated with the Manipal University who believed in our vision to provide a professional management course in media and entertainment. With this we have moved one step forward towards the true meaning and value of Industrialization of Indian cinema."

Indian film industry received the Industry status in May 1998 after intense lobbying for over two decades. Much has changed in the Film Industry since then, but the industry lacks professional managers to manage this Industry. There is a need to bring in a professional university curriculum into the system. WWI and Manipal University came together in 2008 and formed an alliance to provide a specialized MBA degree course in Media and Entertainment; MBA(M&E).