Bombay Durpun - India's 'Maharaja in Denims' stakes claim in AI film race

One contender 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 causing delays. There are no sets," Singh told AFP.

"It is sheer creativity of mind and the machine," said the author, who co-founded the startup Intelliflicks 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 use.

Separate projects in the country, 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 use the latest technology, so what was made before didn't look as appealing," Singh said.

"But then it also burns cash, because you are spending again for the software."

- 'Toughest' path -

In 2024, Singh and Intelliflicks 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 make "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 budget.

But Singh said AI had slashed costs to roughly a tenth.

While the startup has "cracked" the process of AI filmmaking, mythological and science‑fiction films, where characters' faces are less defined, are far easier to generate than realistic cinema, he argued.

"We chose the toughest... path of realism," Singh said.

AI models were poorly trained for Indian faces and Sikh historical figures, forcing the team to repeatedly troubleshoot.

A Western movie would be "much easier to generate, because the models are trained for that", he said.

"Had we known the challenges, we would have picked a different script."

- Human music -

ChatGPT maker 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 said.

Interest is already spreading beyond the film industry, and Singh says 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 making progress, you will have an 18-year-old sitting somewhere in a village who would be challenging the big guys," he said.

X.Badami--BD