AI filmmaking gets real and viral, Bollywood filmmakers say now show human emotions

Nowadays, almost every week a movie or two, created using AI, goes viral on social media. The tools are good enough, but Bollywood professionals tell India Today Tech that tools alone don't make a movie good. Crafts and emotions matter too.

In Short

• People are creating polished short films using AI
• Many of these films often go viral nowadays 
• On AI in filmmaking, Bollywood professionals hold different views

In The Patchwright, a 21-minute short film, the first frame is arresting enough to hook viewers immediately. It shows a majestic white lion roaring and showcasing its metal implants. It looks like an animal straight out of the Marvel universe. But it is not. Instead, the lion is part of a new world, created entirely using AI, where all living beings walk around augmented with gadgets and machinery. They all carry “patchwork” on their bodies.

The Patchwright is as polished a film as any. It looks as slick as anything that Hollywood can put out. Though, see it carefully and it comes across as a cliched mess. But at least in its settings, it looks expensive and meticulous. It also has 10 million views on YouTube, many of them coming earlier this week when it went viral along with three more Hollywood-class short movies. The themes are different. The Patchwright is photo-realistic. So is the Zombie Scavenger with its gun-slinging robot with a penchant for beautiful mannequins. Push The Button, meanwhile, has the Pixar-like quality to its pigeons, while Sinicitum seems to have a style as if it was part of Love Death + Robots.

Beyond their differences, all four movies have one thing in common. They have been created using AI by people who are most likely amateurs or hobbyists. Arguably the most famous of these is Zack London, who runs an AI film company called Gossip Goblin and who has been called “George Lucas of AI” by Hollywood Reporter. In the case of Zombie Scavenger we don’t even know the person who has created it. The person is from China and the movie only carries an alias in place of the director.

Apart from being AI-created films, there is one more thing that is common between the four clips: they are proof that AI filmmaking tools like Seedance 2.0, Veo 3.1, and Midjourney have become good enough to allow almost anyone to become a movie director. And movies can be made, with some effort and perseverance, while sitting inside a room. The potential of these AI tools is immense and so is their potential impact on filmmaking.

Bollywood meets AI

In fact, AI is already a part of filmmaking, not just globally but in India as well. Take for example Mahabharata, a show streaming on JioHotstar. It has been created with AI. Collective Artists Network CEO and founder Vijay Subramaniam is the man behind the show. He tells India Today Tech, “I think (AI) adoption will naturally increase over the next few years, much like digital cameras, CGI, or virtual production did.”

His views are shared by Dipankar Mukherjee, co-founder and CEO of Studio Blo. His company has created a show called Warlord in partnership with filmmaker Shekhar Kapur. The show has been billed as India’s first AI-driven sci-fi series. “AI is already a mainstream tool for filmmaking. Prominent filmmakers and studios are using it to supplement traditional shoots,” Dipankar tells India Today Tech.

Cannes hears “F*** AI”

The trouble with the reality, as some filmmakers call AI use in the industry, can be that it could be different for different people. Not everyone is onboard the AI bandwagon. Globally, a pushback has started. We got a sense of this from the Cannes Film Festival this week.

On Friday Oscar-winning director Guillermo del Toro made his views on AI clear. He said, "F*** AI.”

Here in India and in Bollywood too, not everyone is keen on AI in filmmaking. There are people who want to focus on storytelling instead of tech wizardry or cutting costs, or bringing down the barriers and walls so that anyone can be a director.

Bollywood director Amit Rai tells India Today Tech that AI tools cannot replace humans in filmmaking. “An AI film is not going to appeal to the audience. Because the audience knows that all this is a lie. They come to see a lie because a true human is presenting a lie (by acting). In an AI film, that human does not exist. Then why will you go to see his film,” asks Rai.

Rai says that even the impossibilities in a movie, something we call special effects, are only acceptable because there is a human behind them — either through live action or through voice. To make his point he gives the example of Jackie Chan and his acrobatics. “I don't want to see anyone who is swinging four swords together. I know it is not possible. But if Jackie Chan does it, I will see it. Because it is through humans,” he says.

The AI evangelists and early-adopters in the industry disagree. They say that AI tools are exactly that — tools. And that creativity and emotions can be generated with them as well. “Intent and taste are in the hands of the maker. Emotions in film are largely evoked in the cut, through a highly nuanced permutation of light, sound, blocking and performance,” says Dipankar. “It’s possible to evoke emotions even through a stop-motion film using just matchsticks. In the right hands, AI films are completely capable of being evocative.”

“It is all rubbish” at the moment

While filmmakers acknowledge that tools like Seedance 2.0 and Veo 3.1 can be used merely as AI tools, they highlight that using them requires human ingenuity. This, according to professionals, comes only by practicing craft and honing skills for years.

“Not everyone can use (AI tools). Right now, what I am seeing outside is that everyone is calling themselves an AI director,” says Arpan Gaglani, founder of philmCGI. “It’s all rubbish. It’s painful to go through their (AI) videos because they are not storytellers,” philmCGI founder and managing director Arpan Gaglani tells India Today Tech.

Gaglani says his company, which has worked on creating VFX for movies like Dhurandhar and Kalki 2898 AD, has started using AI tools but only as aid to good storytelling. The tools come later, the craft and storytelling comes first. “Just because you know AutoCAD, you do not become an architect,” says Gaglani. “The grind of filmmaking, the grind of design, the grind of everything, cinematography, editing, it's an institution where it's been passed down from generation to generation. There is a whole lot of meaning.”

At the time when the world is trying to figure out all that AI has unleashed, the film industry too is trying to navigate the tech-driven reality. The conversations so far, like the way we see it in other industries, have created different camps. There are people who believe AI would fundamentally change filmmaking, while there are others — barring the ones like del Toro who is at the extreme end — who believe that in the right hands AI can do a good enough job. As for whose hands are the right hands, the debate is still on.

The likes of Zack London believe they are the future of the industry. But people like Vijay Subramaniam are more cautious. “Technology can accelerate parts of the process, but it cannot replace human insight or storytelling instinct,” he says.

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