AI and Innovation in Bollywood: From Script Pitching to Low-Budget Filmmaking

Mid-Day 45th Anniversary Special: Screenwriter-editor Sumit Purohit reveals how he pitches script ideas to producers by using AI

Making pitch decks is passé. Screenwriter-editor Sumit Purohit reveals how he pitches script ideas to producers by creating slick trailers, using AI Can I use a largely empty frame with my subject on the side? Can I use dim lighting in a scene? Prospective scenes play out in editor Sumit Purohit's mind like a reel. As do questions. Finding answers to them used to be a laborious process earlier, as he would dig out references from old films and stitch them together to gauge their feasibility. But that has changed in the past one-and-a-half months. "As a filmmaker, I need to tell stories visually. You always go back to visual references -- paintings, old films and photographs -- and you say, 'Can I do something like this? Can I use this kind of light? Can a frame be like this?' So, when I started using AI, I used it like that. Because I paint, draw and have dealt with a lot of visual material in college, I know which artiste to refer to and I prompt that in AI," he explains. ADVERTISEMENT The world of AI has become the filmmaker-editor's favourite playground right now. Currently, Purohit is employing his favourite tools to create trailers to pitch his story ideas to producers. "I have been meeting filmmakers and DoPs [director of photography], who saw these trailers I created and got very excited. Many writers have been asking me to teach them. If there was no AI and I had to make a pitch trailer, I would have gone through 100 old films to find scenes I want to use and then combine them." Unused stills from the trailer of a horror movie that Sumit Purohit pitched to producers Only recently, Purohit created a scratch trailer to pitch a period drama that he wants to make. In a world without AI, making a trailer about the sixth century -- the period his movie is set in -- with corresponding references and scenes would have taken longer. But that's where the software, Midjourney and LumaLabs, come in. "There is a play that one of my college teachers had directed. I have wanted to adapt it ever since. It's a period story set in the sixth century. So, I know exactly the visuals I want. I [prompt them into the software], which generates these visuals; then I edit them to make a trailer like I would edit a film." Purohit gives an example of how building a world on existing references existed well before AI, even in the writing world. Recalling his experience of writing the popular web series, Inside Edge, he says, "We had to shoot cricket matches. So, Karan Anshuman [creator] and I discussed that I should take pictures of a real cricket match and emulate those. Even that is a reference, right? So, even without AI, we have been taking references." Sumit Purohit Things have undoubtedly become easier with technology. The writer-editor has also created a pitch for a horror film. During the process, he felt that the trailer could take the shape of a '90s music video. Following his instincts, he edited a short video to an Ali Sethi song. That is an intangible but significant luxury that AI tools afford -- the freedom to follow your instinct, and fail even. The more tangible benefits are for all to see. "A DoP told me that when a concept art is made for a film, it gets lost in translation once the team goes on set because there is a difference between the concept art and the final product. But the AI-created visual reference is showing you precisely how the final visual will look, including the light and mist. So, everyone is on the same page." Benefits don't come alone; they bring disadvantages too. AI, helpful as it is, is being viewed as a threat to many jobs. To Purohit, such a thought only reveals people's own insecurity. "If you go into a moral debate around it, there is no end to this discussion. We feel threatened by AI because we think it will do what humans do. People say that with AI, many jobs will be gone, but that happens with any tech innovation." He argues that there will always be people who will prefer the human touch. "Christopher Nolan still shoots on film. So, it's about what works for your vision. For me, the craft and visual are important; the means, not so much. First, the job of executives will go because that is data-driven job, which even an AI tool can do. And then there will always be purists." What is it? Screenwriter-editor Sumit Purohit creates trailers to pitch his story ideas to producers, thus giving them a look and feel of the world he wants to create. How it works? His background as a writer-editor has made him well-versed in references. Prompting specific references to Midjourney and LumaLabs gives him the desired results, which are then stitched together to make a trailer. Who it benefits? First off, it helps producers in fully understanding the film's milieu, thus increasing the chances of the project being greenlit. On set too, the AI-created visual references tell the director and his crew of the final visual look that has to be achieved. It minimises the gap between what is imagined and the final product.

Mid-Day 45th Anniversary Special: Actor Naman Pincha and director Syed Shadan, who shot their short film Overdrive on the shoot of their 10,000-rupee movie

Actor Naman Pincha and director Syed Shadan, who shot their short film Overdrive employing the software Wonder Dynamics, break down how Pincha played second fiddle to a robot during the shoot of their 10,000-rupee movie When it comes to big-ticket Bollywood films, we often hear that it has been delayed because its VFX is taking longer than expected. That special effects is a time-consuming process has been ingrained in everyone's heads. So, imagine actor-writer Naman Pincha and writer-director Syed Shadan's surprise when they stumbled upon Wonder Dynamics, which enabled them to pull off their short film, Overdrive, in two weeks! ADVERTISEMENT When we meet the two-people team behind the film, they explain that Wonder Dynamics is a software that focuses on integrating AI and visual effects to streamline and enhance the filmmaking process. Pincha says, "The idea is to make high-quality visual effects more accessible and affordable for filmmakers, particularly those working with limited budgets. Before this, we had made a music video where we had used two CGI-generated babies. The three-minute video took us eight months to make. This project is so much more CGI-heavy than that; it was made in two weeks and on one-tenth the budget. The speed at which this was made was mind-blowing." In September 2023, Pincha and Shadan made Overdrive, a 15-minute film about a robot who wants to have an apple. The plot was simple: The robot's programming doesn't allow it to eat the apple, and it tries to override the programming so that it can. Shadan, who conceptualised the story, says, "At the start, we had no story; just a visual of a robot struggling to eat an apple. At a time when AI is able to do so much, it still cannot perform the basic human tasks. There are many takeaways from the film. Early on, we saw the parallels between this and Eve eating apples and getting banished from the Garden of Eden. The film mirrored the Biblical story. AI feels like that red apple." Pincha pitches in that the short film asks the question that is on everyone's mind today. "Overdrive's idea came to us after we watched Oppenheimer [2023]. The larger question was, how catastrophic can human innovation be?" The duo shot the film with Shadan taking his place behind the camera. Pincha, as the 'actor' in the solo-act film, would have to perform all the movements in front of the camera, after which the AI tool would superimpose the robot on him. "I wasn't originally going to act in this. I am not a trained actor. But since Shadan was behind the scenes and handling the camera, I had to be on screen," says Pincha. The exercise revealed to them another facet of AI that they had not considered -- it even made suggestions that would improve the performance. "After the robot was superimposed on me, there is a small thing that it did in a scene -- it did a head tilt [to suggest the emotion of sympathy], which was suggested by AI. It's something I eventually incorporated into the performance. Technology played a collaborative role in how the story shaped up. It was like having a personal bouncing board. We would think of something, feed it to AI and it would tell us if it's possible to pull it off." So, an AI robot was the film's hero and he, the stand-in? Pincha laughs, saying, "Is it dystopian it happened that way?" In a way, it exemplifies the classic AI-will-eat-our-job narrative. He disagrees, "People are the starting point of any story, any thought. For me, it was important to drive home the point of the story we were trying to tell. The acting process left me content with what I did. For me, what happened on set is more important than what's on screen." To Shadan, AI's biggest benefit is that it gives the artiste room to experiment without having to worry about the rising budget. "When you are making a standard movie, you can't change the camera angle. A pipeline of carefully thought-out things are done, which we call pre-production, leaving zero scope for impromptu innovation. With AI processes, trial and error is good. There were days we would do a demo shoot, and within hours, it would tell us if it works. There is more room to play around with a movie. In traditional CGI, we wouldn't even try it because of the costs involved. We could do 10-15 variations because AI makes it inexpensive, and it's more efficient." The film was made on a budget of Rs 10,000; in contrast, had they gone the VFX route, it would have cost them a couple of lakhs. Pincha firmly believes AI will change how visual effects are done in movies. "There are many people to do specific bits of a job. Someone does the modelling of CGI characters, someone does movement, another does rotoscopy. AI will reduce the pipeline. It will help in making projects quickly," he says. That underlines the point of human beings becoming the casualty of this advancement. It is a concern, he agrees, but the benefits outweigh the disadvantages. "Art is in the hands of people, and if they can make something great with it, so be it. For a short film like this, we would've never got a producer. AI will help independent filmmakers. It will affect some jobs, but a new workforce will be created." What is it? With the help of Wonder Dynamics, actor-director duo Naman Pincha and Syed Shadan made an AI-generated short film, Overdrive, in two weeks on a budget of Rs 10,000. How it works? As the 'actor' in the solo-act film, Pincha performed all the movements in front of the camera, after which the AI tool superimposed the robot on him. Who it benefits? The software empowers independent filmmakers who want to experiment with different narratives and unusual camera angles, without having to worry about the surge in budget.

Mid-Day 45th Anniversary Special: Khushwant Singh and Gurdeep Pall decode the process of making Maharaja in Denims

How do you make a movie with no cast? As they make Maharaja in Denims purely using AI, Khushwant Singh and Gurdeep Pall decode the process, from achieving lip-sync to perfecting Indian features If veteran actor Ranjeet had his way, he would have launched his son Jeeva in Bollywood with the screen adaptation of the 2014 book, Maharaja in Denims. We're told by young author Khushwant Singh that his book had even caught the attention of actor Arjun Rampal, who wanted to acquire its rights. But someone else entirely was destined to be this film's hero -- an AI-generated leading man. ADVERTISEMENT At a time when technology is improving by leaps and bounds, the Chandigarh-based author has decided to make what he believes will be India's first AI-generated feature film. The idea, Singh admits, didn't come to him organically. After penning the novel, he was thrilled when Ranjeet, Rampal and producer Guneet Monga Kapoor approached him for the adaptation rights. It was his cousin Gurdeep Pall -- a former corporate vice-president at Microsoft, playing a pivotal role in shaping the tech giant's products, services, and AI technologies -- who sowed the idea. Singh recalls, "In March last year, Gurdeep told me not to renew [adaptation contracts of] Maharaja in Denims with anyone. Seeing how the technology was developing, he said we would be able to make a full-AI movie within the next two years." Thus, in 2023, was born their company Intelliflicks Studios, and with it, the ambition of bringing this film to life. The film spans three eras -- Ranjit Singh's reign in 1839, India's Partition in 1947, and the anti-Sikh riots in 1984. They released the movie's first trailer earlier this year; the two-minute video has not only AI-created figures, but also the backdrops and background score developed by different tools. "The first six months went in experimenting," says Pall, adding that it took two months to get the trailer ready. Behind this is a core team that includes Singh, Pall, creative director Revant Bogra, and former journalist Palpreet Singh as the screenplay writer. "Palpreet completed the screenplay a month ago and now sits with the team at every stage. Lyrics will be written by a human. We've already commissioned the songs [to a composer]. We may train a voice for the songs and get someone to record it, but the symphony will be AI-generated," explains Singh. Pall says that the background music is already generated by AI. That brings us to the hard part, of actually executing the movie that tells the story of Hari, who believes he is the reincarnation of Maharaja Ranjit Singh, commonly known as the Lion of Punjab. What makes it harder is that the novel is set in three different eras, aside from the present day -- Maharaja Ranjit Singh's reign from 1801 to 1839, India's Partition in 1947, and the anti-Sikh riots in 1984. Singh breaks it down for us, explaining that a team of five to six prompt engineers, under Pall and Bogra's supervision, started creating the world from March 2023, using their patented software as well as those from different companies, including Runway, Midjourney and Stability AI. "We do a lot of discussion because each character has to be rendered. It could take two minutes or four hours. We keep making, adding, cutting, rendering, and adjusting the colour tones. We've passed the early stage. With tech advancement, we are now working on bringing emotions to the face, we're able to turn their head, make them sway and do the kathak," says Singh. Pall adds that they've sourced tech from different companies for various needs. "Some specialise in voices, others in still images, and some others in creating expressions." The film touches on the 26/11 attacks The challenges too are many; some expected, others unforeseen. While perfecting lip-syncing to long dialogues is one example, Singh highlights another facet. "AI is very well-tuned with the western model. To get Indian faces, colour, and features [was difficult]. Now, we've rendered a Kashmiri woman, as Maharaja Ranjit Singh was in love with one. She has turned out beautiful. Also, the software would exhibit a cap when we were trying to get the Sikh turban. It's not a topi, it's a kalgi and has a certain design to it," explains Singh. The team plans to release their passion project, with a runtime of 100 minutes, in June 2025. With that deadline in mind, the team targets a specific number of scenes, to be completed in a month. "Some scenes can be difficult, and my creative engineer will say he requires more time to make it come alive. For instance, to make a person come out of the car [can be difficult because it involves motion] in different angles. When I saw the Partition scene, I asked my creative engineer where he found such a moving picture [to form the base]. The scene is recreated by AI after picking up data that is available, and then smartly matched with various prompts and software." Gurdeep Pall, Khushwant Singh and Revant Bogra It goes without saying that AI drastically reduces the cost of filmmaking. But to Singh, the bigger benefit is that it will "democratise creativity". "Everyone said that a movie, which depicts three eras, will require [a budget of] about Rs 80-Rs 100 crore. If I had gone with that, I would have been stuck with [production studios] taking time. Plus, 70 per cent of the movie cost would have been the actor's fee. Imagine if that is eliminated, we can make so many movies!" That is all in good time. For now, as Maharaja in Denims is about 25 per cent complete, the author-filmmaker emphasises that the movie is a means to showcase new ways of filmmaking. "You have to look at it like the first movie ever made. You cannot compare it to contemporary movies. It will have its limitations. But if the technology picks up, there will be a phase when we might even create AI superheroes!" What is it? Maharaja in Denims is an AI-generated film, adapted from Khushwant Singh's book of the same name. Set to release in June 2025, the author believes it will be India's first AI feature film. How it works? Creative director Revant Bogra and his team of six prompt engineers create scene after scene, using their patented software as well as those like Runway and Midjourney, as per the narrative. Each scene is created by AI after picking up relevant data that is available online, and then matching it to the current need. Who it benefits? Singh argues that making a period film like Maharaja in Denims, which depicts three eras, would have easily cost Rs 80-Rs 100 crore. In contrast, employing AI is cost- and time-effective. He also states that the bigger benefit is that it democratises creativity.