Welcome to the new-look movie set, where the quiet hum of a coding floor has replaced the cacophony of cameras, clapperboards, and shouted directions. India, the world’s most prolific film industry, is deploying artificial intelligence at a scale unseen elsewhere—creating full-fledged AI-generated films, using AI dubbing to release movies in numerous languages, and recutting endings of older titles to eke out additional sales.
Studios are responding to shifting audience habits, including the rise of streaming, which is squeezing production budgets. The number of moviegoers fell to 832 million in 2025 from 1.03 billion in 2019, according to consulting firm Ormax Media. While box-office sales hit a record $1.4 billion last year, revenue has been choppy since the pandemic and reliant on a handful of hits and pricier tickets.
The Economics of AI Filmmaking
| Aspect | Traditional Filmmaking | AI-Powered Filmmaking |
|---|---|---|
| Production Cost | Baseline | One-fifth of traditional cost |
| Production Time | Baseline | One-quarter of traditional time |
| Key Genres | All | Mythology, fantasy (most impacted) |
“AI is slashing production costs to one-fifth of what they used to be for traditional filmmaking in genres such as mythology and fantasy,” said Rahul Regulapati, who heads Collective Artists Network’s AI studio, Galleri5. Production time? “Down to a quarter.”
The AI Studio: Galleri5
At Collective’s Bengaluru premises, filmmakers use AI tools to create content based on Hindu mythology, a popular genre in India. One movie, based on the religious text Ramayana, has a scene showing the god Hanuman flying while carrying a mountain. A show based on Mahabharat features a sequence depicting the princess Gandhari.
Collective is planning eight AI-generated titles focused on deities such as Hanuman, Krishna, Durga, and Kali.
AI Dubbing: Solving India’s Language Puzzle
India’s 22 official languages and hundreds of dialects split the country into micro-markets, making dubbing essential. Audiences have long griped about mismatched lip movement—a problem AI is beginning to address.
| Company | Technology | Application |
|---|---|---|
| NeuralGarage | AI lip-sync dubbing | Used for Yash Raj Films’ War 2 (Hindi to Telugu) |
| Galleri5 | Hybrid motion-capture + AI | Actors wear sensor-equipped suits; smartphones capture facial expressions |
During a Reuters visit to NeuralGarage, an AI startup in Bengaluru that provides dubbing for top studios like Yash Raj Films, co-founder Subhabrata Debnath demonstrated a clip of an AI-generated character speaking in English. He then superimposed a German audio track, and within minutes the character was speaking fluent German, lips and jaw in sync.
Debnath said the technology preserves “the performance, identity and the speaking style of the person” while altering the face enough to make the dubbing look natural.
Recutting Old Titles: The ‘Raanjhanaa’ Experiment
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Original Film | Raanjhanaa (2013) |
| Original Ending | Tragic (protagonist dies) |
| AI-Altered Ending | Happier finale (protagonist opens his eyes) |
| Response | Lead actor Dhanush called it “deeply concerning” |
| Ticket Sales | 35% of available tickets sold (vs 23% average) |
Last year, India’s Eros Media World re-released a 2013 hit, Raanjhanaa, with an AI-altered twist. The rewrite drew backlash. Dhanush, the lead actor, said on X that the AI remake had “stripped the film of its very soul” and set a “deeply concerning precedent for both art and artists.”
Still, the re-release drew audiences. Now, Eros is going further: Pradeep Dwivedi, its group CEO, told Reuters the studio is reviewing its 3,000-title catalog “to identify candidates for AI-assisted adaptation.”
AI-Generated Episodic Series: ‘Mahabharat’
| Aspect | Details |
|---|---|
| Platform | JioStar (Reliance + Disney joint venture) |
| Series | AI-generated adaptation of Mahabharat |
| Views | 26.5 million+ since October release |
| IMDb Rating | 1.4/10 |
| Criticism | Lip-sync issues, low quality, unnatural styling |
JioStar has been airing an AI-generated adaptation of the ancient Hindu epic Mahabharat—the first episodic series to emerge from Collective’s cinematic AI lab. The show has faced a rocky reception with audiences, holding a rating of 1.4 out of 10 on IMDb.
Alok Jain, a senior executive at JioStar, told Reuters the response “has been a mix of appreciation and healthy debate, which is natural for any ambitious creative leap.”
Global Tech Giants Get Involved
| Company | Role |
|---|---|
| Partnered with director Shakun Batra for AI-powered series using Veo 3 and Flow AI | |
| Microsoft | Providing AI computing power to Collective |
| Nvidia | Working to slash computing costs for AI filmmakers |
The Indian vs. Hollywood Approach
In Hollywood, union contracts and fears of job displacement have constrained studios’ use of AI. Under an agreement with SAG-AFTRA, studios cannot digitally alter an actor’s performance without informed consent. The Directors Guild of America contract bars studios from using AI for creative decisions without consulting the director.
Indian studios, by contrast, are pushing into aggressive experiments using AI.
“If they can deliver, then the shift in AI filmmaking will be to India,” said Dominic Lees, a film and AI researcher at Britain’s University of Reading.
Economic Impact and Projections
| Aspect | Projection |
|---|---|
| Revenue Boost (EY) | 10% for Indian media and entertainment firms |
| Cost Reduction (EY) | 15% over medium term |
| Abundantia Entertainment | Building $11M AI studio; expects 1/3 of revenue from AI within 3 years |
Vikram Malhotra, founder of Abundantia Entertainment, told Reuters the Bollywood production house is building its AI capability from scratch and expects content generated or assisted by AI to account for one-third of its revenue within three years.
Concerns and Criticism
| Critic | View |
|---|---|
| Jonathan Taplin (American producer) | “An affront to the whole history of cinema. It will fill your cinemas and screens with formula slop.” |
| Anurag Kashyap (Bollywood director) | Concerned about lack of guardrails, but conceded studios will use it for mythologicals. “Our audience is a sucker for it.” |
Anurag Kashyap, a Bollywood director, told Reuters he is concerned about the growth of AI in filmmaking in India and the lack of guardrails around its use. But he grudgingly conceded the economic case for studios to deploy the technology.
“In India, cinema isn’t about art. It’s purely business, so studios are going to use it to make mythologicals,” Kashyap said. “Our audience is a sucker for it.”
