Hack or Skill? Mumbai’s first AI film festival sparks a debate on creativity and

A new kind of premiere is in town Mumbairsquos to host mdash AI Film Festival mdash at the Royal Opera House backed by over 20 lakh in prizes and has full sponsorship support While it might seem an inevitable step in the art of moviemaking the timing has sparked debate as it will be held on almost the same dates as the now cancelled Mumbai Academy of Moving Image MAMI film festivalWhispers of MAMIrsquos lack of funding have been doing the rounds for the better part of a decade but the festival director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur in his statement only hinted at the likelihood of a money crunch driving the cancellation ldquoWe are in the process of revamping the festival with a dynamic vision and a new team to ensure that the festival returnsrdquo says a part of Dungarpurrsquos statement put out on Instagram in late JulyA still for Mahabharat that used AI on a large scaleAs one legacy festival fades an AIpowered one rises forcing a rethink of what counts as cinema who gets to be a filmmaker and what the judging of AImade films look like The organisers have taken the concept of a gaming hackathon to make the festival more interesting The participants will be given 48hours to work on storytelling as well as show their prowess with AI to winChandan Perla coorganiser along with Hardeep Gambhir explains that AI allows a small team to execute ambitious ideas ldquoThe festival was Hardeeprsquos brainchild envisaged as a hackathon where 15 teams each with three people would make their film and screen it for the judges on the last dayrdquo The response stunned the largely GenZ organising team whose average age is 21 ldquoWe were aiming for 2000 people to register but now we have far exceeded that and we are in the process of whittling these down to the 15 that will take partrdquo says Perla An equally strong sentiment for the Opera House showcase is that itrsquos a testbed not a takedown of filmmaking tradition ldquoThe goal is not just to see a rise of AI filmmakers but to get a better understanding of how storytelling can evolve with these tools Like in Ratatouille lsquoanyone can cook rsquo we believe the same applies here Great storytellers can come from anywhererdquo he addsShakun Batra Harshit Agarwal and Chandan Perla coorganiser of AI Film FestivalFurther explaining that storytelling will remain at the heart of how the films will be judged Perla says ldquoWe looked at every film from a firstprinciples view of storytelling Story clarity pacing structure and overall presentation mattered more than photorealism The idea is to see how well AI tools will be used to serve the story not the other way aroundrdquoThe jury includes Tanmay Bhatt Kunal Kapoor Zoya Akhtar and Shakun Batra among others Addressing the MAMI cancellation Batra says ldquoI have seen a few comments and I get where the frustrationrsquos coming from MAMI is iconic and yes itrsquos one of the most important institutions and deserves funding periodrdquo But he doesnrsquot see a clash ldquoThese arenrsquot in competition Theyrsquore doing completely different things What drew me to the AI festival was the opportunity to test questions we havenrsquot figured out yet mdash about tools storytelling access and authorship Supporting innovation doesnrsquot mean turning our back on tradition It just means being open to more than one kind of storyrdquoDipankar Mukherjee and Hardeep GambhirThat framing mirrors how other AI festivals are evolving Runwayrsquos AIFF for instance publicly prioritised story over spectacle while reserving room for technical awards Ars Electronicarsquos jury statements have similarly stressed artistic inquiry and cultural resonance not just software prowessDipankar Mukherjee cofounder amp CEO of Studio Blo an AIdriven content studio has built projects with mainstream directors and believes that cinema is stories told on screen Whether it is made by AI or not should be beside the point ldquoWe have been bringing in cinematographers production designers directors and lighting people It is their inputs that really enrich what we are asking AI to do The entire creativity is still humanrdquo he says Yet Mukherjee finds the festivalrsquos hackathon format strange ldquoYou donrsquot create quality in two days The focus needs to move away from time and cost to qualityrdquo he addsHarshit Agarwal builds his own AI models with open datasets to create art but is a firm believer that if the technology is to find more acceptability those who wield it much like the festival must encourage transparency ldquoArtists should be encouraged to reveal their process The panel could have a mix of people from tech and filmmakers who know the craft to ensure diversity and no disrespect to traditional art formsrdquo he saysWhile in India the box office fate of a movie is often determined by the star power it boasts will the use of AI make much of a difference Krishna Desai chief product officer and data scientist at Animeta an AI film studio believes AI will ensure that there is something for every kind of movie watcher ldquoIf a big star is in the movie people will come to see that actor not just the character mdash that reality is not going away anytime soon But what AI might do is open up a new type of movie mdash what we would call arthouse or niche films mdash and that movement may just acceleraterdquo he says with a certain vision for the futureOnly time will tell if AI will give us main character energy or remain a side hustle in the film industry either way the movie goer should bask in the glory of being wooed for their heart and their eyeballsWith inputs by Vidya Heble