Aniket Bera, director of the Ideas Lab at Purdue University, has worked on two very different projects in the AI space – the restoration of a fragment of film from 1899, believed to be the oldest surviving footage of India, and an earlier AI-based experiment with Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali.
“The AI softens the shadows and contrast that were so central to the film’s mood. AI doesn’t understand symbolism, it only guesses patterns,” he says. Bera says that every step required human review to ensure the result was faithful to the original. “AI often hallucinated details, ‘improving’ things by changing the visual language. With that, we risk rewriting history.”
For Mukherji, AI allowed him to realise his filmmaking vision. How else could he have cast two deceased actors? AI recreated the voice of Uttam Kumar throughout Oti Uttam. However, he emphasises that the project was heavily dependent on human input, all the same: for script-writing, collating archival footage, seeking legal permissions and vetting the AI’s output.
AI tools are evolving rapidly, creating a host of regulatory and ethical questions. Mukherji urges optimism. “Instead of panicking, humans should get comfortable with AI,” he says. “Tame it, master it and harness it. It isn’t an android-like monster trying to gobble up your creativity. It is aiding creativity, not replacing it.”
And yet, for others, AI’s limitations remain evident. Chandu is now sharing his on-set learnings in the classroom – he teaches a university course on AI in cinema. In one module, he urges students to make two films – one using ChatGPT and AI video tools, and the other entirely with traditional techniques.