Filmmakers turn to AI to cut costs and scale content production

The occasion was Mumbai’s first ever ‘AI Film Festival’, where teams of young creatives from across India (and even abroad) flew in to participate in a ‘hackathon’, making short films using generative AI tools, to be judged by a panel of entertainment professionals.

Creator Tanmay Bhat was a part of the jury, as were Hindi film directors Karan Anshuman and Shakun Batra. Just days earlier, the event had generated much dismay on social media; many film critics and enthusiasts rued that in the very year the Mumbai Academy of Moving Image (MAMI) Film Festival went missing, the city was hosting an AI film festival instead.

At the festival, headed by a clutch of startup enthusiasts from Bengaluru and sponsored by Peak XV-backed artificial intelligence-powered video-creation firm InVideo, several entries were awarded for storytelling, cinematography, and a ‘Best Overall Film’.

India’s film industry is in a funk. Fewer films are getting made, especially in Hindi, and fewer still are able to recover their investments at the box office. Footfalls and occupancy at the theatres are still hovering below or around pre-pandemic levels, and streaming platforms have sharply cut their spending on original content. Per media consulting firm Ormax, domestic footfalls in 2024 declined 6% to 883 million, well below not just 2019 levels before the pandemic, but even those a decade ago.

Meanwhile, streaming platforms are commissioning fewer original films and shows, preferring instead to acquire what hits the theatres. Besides, there is little space for small-budget films, driving up the cost of making films altogether. In short: the post-pandemic boom in content supply is now over.

Now, filmmakers are turning to AI to mount large-scale projects at a fraction of the prevailing costs. Vijay Subramaniam, founder of talent management and content firm Collective Artists’ Network (CAN), plans to produce 3-4 films made with AI for theatrical release, starting Hanuman in early 2026. His group company Galleri5 created an “AI-powered" show Mahabharat - Ek Dharmayudh that released on JioHotstar this October to largely poor reviews.

“Why AI? It would have taken me seven years to make this [show] otherwise," he told Mint in an interview. “I am a firm believer in technology to make content faster, better, and more economical. This has to happen, otherwise we will never come out of the flux the filmmaking business is in right now. We can’t take many years and millions of dollars to make films at scale."

There are other such projects in the works. Shekhar Kapur, director of iconic films such as Mr India, is also working on a science-fiction series named Warlord with Mumbai-based firm Studio Blo; it will be made entirely using generative AI. Separately, the studio is making 2-3 animation films using AI meant for a big-screen release, founder Dipankar Mukherjee told Mint.

“The cost of movies and the time it takes is easily less than half of what it would cost to make a feature film," Studio Blo’s Mukherjee said. “But the point isn’t the cheapness - it’s the scale."

This year’s edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) Goa is also hosting an AI Film Festival, screening 27 films in its AI competition section from around the world, including Europe and China. IFFI, too, is touting its festival as India’s first such event.

Quick, affordable

Poor box-office runs have left financial backers jittery about investing in new projects. Professional AI tools have helped cut costs and turnaround times with the right teams, filmmakers and tech executives say.

“Today, I do not have to spend hundreds of crores on telling a story like Mahabharat, which requires massive sets and actors," CAN’s Subramaniam said. “We have invested in hiring humans, who can create an expensive location of Hastinapur by giving the right command to AI tools."

Mahabharat’s team consists of much younger professionals, including Lavanya, the show’s director, a recent graduate of Mumbai-based film school Whistling Woods International, among about 100 members. “We are the only ones creating a 100-episode series and movies for theatrical releases completely using AI. Without AI it would have taken me 7 years to make this," Subramaniam added. Subramaniam was able to save a lot of money, as the AI-powered project did not require expensive studio space, lights, and other equipment needed for a live-action series.

“Our crew was 120 people, which would have been approximately the same in an animation project," Subramaniam said. “But using AI is definitely 25-30% more efficient in producing a show."

CAN’s next project on Hanuman is in partnership with Microsoft Azure’s AI Foundry, which includes tools such as Sora 2 along with Microsoft’s machine learning and sound tools designed for filmmakers with over 11,000 AI models. Microsoft hopes that more ordinary people will use these tools.

“In India, given the scale of content consumption, there are a lot more companies that are going to adopt AI tools for content manufacturing," Himani Agrawal, chief operating officer of Microsoft India told Mint in an interview. “CAN is the only prominent player we can talk about as of now. But we see the media and entertainment sector as a space, which is going to need a lot of AI to get the scale and speed of content that customers like you and I have gotten used to consuming."

Budding filmmakers are already putting these and other tools to use. At the Mumbai AI Film Festival held in early November, winning teams used Google’s Nano Banana, OpenAI’s Sora, and a host of tools by the event’s sponsors InVideo and Morphic. Participants said they are already seeing shifts in the technical aspects of filmmaking. For instance, Nimish Choubey, one of the three makers of the short film Amrit that won the Best Cinematography award at the film festival, sees increased use of AI in aspects like music and sound design.

“Opportunities have changed now in music production," Choubey said. “Earlier, an ad agency would hire an artiste to make a jingle. Now you don’t need to hire a professional artiste, now for most of the cases you don’t need a musician to do this."

Skeptics sit out

Yet, exhibitors and mainstream filmmakers aren’t convinced that AI-generated entertainment will work, at least for feature-length films, and certainly not for the big screen.

“We can go on to make a lot of content out of AI, which could be less time-consuming than a live-action film," filmmaker Ram Madhvani told Mint. “But unless the audience believes the character, and feels emotionally connected to what’s happening on screen, and if the cinematic illusion breaks, the audience does not want to pay for the content."

Glitches may be forgiven in online clips, but not on the big screen, they said.

Firms like Collective Artists’ Network and Studio Blo are working on proprietary AI tools and repositories of artwork that can help movies become more lifelike. Yet, exhibitors aren’t convinced.

“There is a possibility of AI-generated content replacing what has so far been created in the animation domain," Rahul Puri, managing director of Mukta Arts and Mukta A2 Cinemas said. “But that has never been a big market in India theatrically. At this point, the technology isn’t sophisticated enough for people (in cinemas) to suspend disbelief around what seems like a comic book coming to life, and I think we are a long way off from this becoming mainstream."

When audiences are choosing to wait to stream even movies helmed by big stars, will they rush to theatres to watch AI-created characters?

“If the story is good, marketing is on-point, with right distribution partners, and the movie gets a big release, then I don’t see why not," CAN's Subramaniam said.