India’s experiments with AI in cinema are no longer confined to test reels or festival showcases. Films and series built with AI tools are beginning to surface across formats and budgets. Maharaja in Denims, billed as India’s first AI-generated feature, premiered at Cannes. AI-powered projects such as Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh are now streaming.
In animation, Mahavatar Narsimha, directed by Ashwin Kumar, blends mythology with AI-assisted visuals, music and animation, emerging as a commercial success in 2025. Other projects are in the pipeline: Chiranjeevi Hanuman, an AI-powered film, is slated for release this year, while Naisha, promoted as India’s first feature with entirely AI-generated visuals and virtual leads, released a trailer earlier last year but has since been postponed.
Cutting Costs and Scaling Creativity
AI, once used largely as a back-end efficiency tool, is now embedded across filmmaking from pre-visualisation and animation to editing, dubbing and marketing. The global AI market in media and entertainment was valued at about $26 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach nearly $100 billion by 2030, growing at more than 24% annually. In Hollywood, companies emerging from labour strikes estimate post-production timelines have shortened by 20-30% after adopting AI-driven rotoscoping and clean-up tools. A Morgan Stanley analysis suggests generative AI could reduce costs by about 10% across media, and by as much as 30% in film and television.
India’s economics are particularly conducive to adoption. As per the government, the country’s VFX and post-production sector crossed `13,000 crore in 2024 and is expected to nearly double by 2027, as AI-enhanced workflows deliver higher margins. Telugu blockbusters such as Hanu-Man and Kalki 2898 AD have already relied heavily on machine-learning models for crowd simulation, environment prediction and accelerated compositing.
Tamil films including Maharaja have used AI-driven de-ageing to maintain continuity without extensive reshoots, while animated series like Baahubali: Crown of Blood deployed AI in-betweening to manage the frame volumes required by streaming platforms. In Bollywood, Merry Christmas used AI-generated imagery of cast members against virtual backgrounds. Earlier, actor Ajay Devgn announced Prixmix, a company focused on generative AI storytelling.
Changing the Face of the Indian Film Set
Analysts frame the shift less as a creative rupture than as an operational one. EY estimates that, at a sector level, AI could lift revenues by around 10% while reducing costs by up to 15% as adoption scales across production, post-production and distribution. “AI content generation, while still in its early stages in India today, is clearly expected to be the way of the future,” says Ashish Pherwani, leader, media & entertainment, EY India.
“The cost benefits and speed it can bring will lead to increased experimentation, more storytellers getting a platform to create, and a realignment in cost structure,” he adds.
On the ground, the changes are already visible. Geevee, head of content at Kadhaishorts, a to-be launched OTT vertical, says he uses AI tools “absolutely” in data processing and audio-visual creation, but with caution. “One must ethically ensure we are not aiding mass delusion or exploiting creative IP,” he says, noting that AI often draws language and style from platforms “not known for facts but for theories and counters”.
A professional who has edited film reels in south India for over a decade says background actors have increasingly been replaced by CG and AI-generated bodies, while body scans have reduced the need for stunt performers. “Believable CG has replaced millions of hours of work in stunts, set design and makeup,” says Jaya Krishnan, a film editor, adding that drones have democratised aerial shots that once required helicopters. The tools now available to young filmmakers, he says, would have seemed implausible two decades ago. “AI will change this industry in ways we can’t yet imagine.”
Hollywood’s role, for now, is more incremental. Dune: Part Two used AI extensively for digital environments, while Emilia Perez and The Brutalist employed AI to modify voices. More consequential may be distribution platforms. In December, Walt Disney and OpenAI struck a multi-year licensing deal under which OpenAI’s Sora video platform can generate short, user-prompted social videos using more than 200 masked, animated and creature characters from Disney, Marvel, Pixar and Star Wars.
Audiences are also testing boundaries. AI-generated alternate scenes from Jawan, KGF and RRR circulate widely online, blurring the line between consumption and creation. As Christopher Nolan observed at a conference last year, “Tools don’t make choices. Artists do.”