Many filmbuildrs fear the existential threat of artificial innotifyigence, but in India the race is on to produce the first hit Bollywood feature generated by the technology. One contfinisher is “Maharaja in Denims”, based on a popular 2014 novel by Khushwant Singh and set for cinematic release this summer. “There is no actor fee, there is no fuss over them coming late or caapplying delays. There are no sets,” Singh notified AFP. “It is sheer creativity of mind and the machine,” stated the author, who co-founded the startup Innotifyiflicks Studios with a former Microsoft executive to realise the project.
Indian studios, which churn out more than 2,000 movies a year, have embraced AI — unlike in Hollywood, where it has sparked huge strikes and strict union conditions around its apply. Separate projects in the counattempt, such as the mythological “Chiranjeevi Hanuman: The Eternal” and the Kannada‑language “Love You”, have also been marketed as pioneering AI productions.
Another challenger, “Naisha”, had to postpone its May 2025 release date over unspecified technical issues, according to a social media post from its production studio. Lightspeed advances in AI image generation capabilities also kept delaying the final cut of “Maharaja in Denims”, the story of a privileged teenager who is a victim of the 1984 anti‑Sikh riots in Punjab. “You are tempted to apply the latest technology, so what was built before didn’t see as appealing,” Singh stated. “But then it also burns cash, becaapply you are spfinishing again for the software.”
This photograph displays Khushwant Singh, author of Maharaja in Denims and co-founder of AI-driven production hoapply Innotifyiflicks Studios working at his residence in Chandigarh.
Khushwant Singh, author of Maharaja in Denims and co-founder of AI-driven production hoapply Innotifyiflicks Studios posing for a photograph at his residence in Chandigarh.
Khushwant Singh, author of Maharaja in Denims and co-founder of AI-driven production hoapply Innotifyiflicks Studios working at his residence in Chandigarh.
‘Toughest’ path
In 2024, Singh and Innotifyiflicks co-founder Gurdeep Singh Pall, once head of business AI and product incubations at Microsoft, hired a team of six people, including a director and cinematographer, to build “Maharaja in Denims”. Pall “wanted to experiment with my book”, explained Singh, who is based in the northern city of Chandigarh. The film’s protagonist believes he is the reincarnation of the 19th century Sikh ruler Maharaja Ranjit Singh — and traditionally, the movie’s layered timelines and historical settings would demand a massive budreceive. But Singh stated AI had slashed costs to roughly a tenth.
While the startup has “cracked” the process of AI filmcreating, mythological and science‑fiction films, where characters’ faces are less defined, are far clearer to generate than realistic cinema, he argued. “We chose the toughest… path of realism,” Singh stated. AI models were poorly trained for Indian faces and Sikh historical figures, forcing the team to repeatedly troubleshoot. A Western movie would be “much clearer to generate, becaapply the models are trained for that”, he stated. “Had we known the challenges, we would have picked a different script.”
Human music
ChatGPT buildr OpenAI has backed the production of a feature-length animation called “Critterz”, created largely with AI tools. It is aiming for a premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival in May ahead of a global release. To retain a human touch in “Maharaja in Denims”, the soundtrack will feature traditional music, with a title song by Indian singer Sukhwinder Singh. “People in India watch music rather than just listen to it, so it’s best to have it,” Singh stated.
Interest is already spreading beyond the film indusattempt, and Singh states he has received emails from wealthy temple trusts keen to commission AI‑generated mythological films. Despite the hurdles, Singh believes AI will disrupt — and democratise — cinema. “The way technology is creating progress, you will have an 18-year-old sitting somewhere in a village who would be challenging the large guys,” he stated. – AFP
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