No need of Amitabh Bachchan or Shah Rukh Khan, AI will help create my star, Indian filmmaker Shekhar Kapur says

Mumbai: How will artificial intelligence impact the movie industry? Indian filmmaker Shekhar Kapur calls AI a powerful invention that will allow him to create his own star instead of relying on superstars like Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan. If he is good enough, he can make a character that the audience will love, the Bollywood director added.

Discussing The Future of News and Entertainment in the Age of AI, Kapur told the audience at the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES) that AI can create stories, but it can never take over humans. He urged people to embrace and use AI with confidence.

“There is no more democratic technology than AI. It is almost as powerful as the invention of the wheel. If we strive to give in to the idea of fear and failure and try to overcome them, then we will always be ahead of AI,” said Kapur, who directed English movies like Elizabeth, The Four Feathers, Elizabeth: The Golden Age, and What’s Love Got to Do with It?

Kapur foresaw a future when AI-created stars will dominate cinema. “Actors are going to be just actors because AI will create stars. AI will create more human-like stars. And I can create a star using AI and have my copyright. And very soon, there will be a slew of ideas for AI movies that will have a girl or a boy or a man or a woman that I’ve created using AI, and that will be my copyright,” added Kapur, whose Hindi directorial ventures include Masoom, Mr India and Bandit Queen.

The veteran director is confident that much of the AI-fuelled social media creativity will spill into cinema too. “A lot of the influencers that you see are not humans. AI has created them. So why can’t we have films with actors and characters who have become stars because we created them on AI? I don’t need Amitabh Bachchan. I’ll create my own character. I don’t need Shah Rukh Khan; I’ll create my own character, my own star.”

With AI and deepfake making inroads into the entertainment industry, actors are forced to copyright themselves. “You can’t use Tom Cruise in an AI movie because he is copyrighted. Can I copyright Amrish Puri? No, I can’t. But can I copyright his Mr India character, Mogambo, exactly as it is? I can. Deepfake is a problem, but should we boot AI out because it can create big waves? Actors need to protect themselves,” Kapur said.