Hello, this is Priyanka Salve writing from Singapore.
Welcome to the latest edition of Inside India. A one-stop destination for stories and developments in the world’s fastest growing large economy.
India is home to the world’s most prolific film production industry. Industry executives told me this week that the adoption of generative AI is accelerating as producers juggle tight budgets and try to meet the growing demand for content in the country’s $32 billion media and entertainment sector.
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While Hollywood continues to explore how best to use AI and debate its impact on jobs, filmmakers in India, the world’s most prolific filmmaking industry, are taking the next step.
Geostar, a joint venture owned by Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani, was established in October last year. Reliance Industries and walt disneyhas launched a 100-episode series that uses generative AI to create a retelling of the Indian mythology epic Mahabharat.
The series “Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh” garnered 6.5 million views on its first day of release, a performance that exceeded the platform average by 2.1x, Stefan Bugai, JioStar’s senior vice president of GenAI content and technology, told CNBC in an email.
Bugai added that the series is not intended to be a “one-off experiment” for the platform, but rather a first step in exploring how AI “expands the boundaries of storytelling.”
And they’re not alone.
Indian production company Abundantia Entertainment is gearing up for a theatrical release of Chiranjeevi Hanuman – The Eternal, which is based on Indian mythology and is being described by local media as India’s first AI-generated feature film.
More than 100 AI shots were used to recreate 1970s Mumbai in the series “Made in India: Tales of the Titans,” which is streaming on Amazon’s MX Player, said Prasad Ghori, an AI artist who worked on the project with partners Anurag Tiwari and Sagar Chogare.
Over the past eight months, there has been a boom in AI-related production jobs, Gori said, adding that he now receives 10 to 15 such job offers every week. Three years ago, he had to chase down a production company for work.
India’s media and entertainment market will be valued at $32 billion in 2025 and is growing at 9%, faster than the overall economy, according to a March report from consulting firm Ernst & Young.
According to Neil Shah, vice president of research at Counterpoint Research, generative AI tools can create films and content at scale at a much lower cost than traditional methods, but the real benefit is that they can shorten production schedules.
“There is a huge demand for content in India,” Shah said in a phone interview, adding that “time to market” will therefore be a key factor for success.
The home page of China’s AI video generation model Seedance 2.0 will appear on your phone. Disney is visible in the background in this photo illustration from Brussels, Belgium, February 16, 2026. (Photo by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Jonathan Ra | Null Photo | Getty Images
lower the barrier
AI gives filmmakers faster turnaround times and unleashes creativity at lower costs.
Manesh Muthu Swamy, co-founder and chief creative officer of Indian content production company FirstAI Consultancy, told CNBC that his team has discovered a novel approach to creating animation projects using AI.
First, the team used human actors to shoot the content and then used AI to create animated characters based on the actors’ facial expressions, Swamy said, explaining that the technology is not yet good at creating facial expressions.
Creating such an animation from scratch using traditional tools can cost millions of dollars and take six months to a year or more to produce, but with AI it can be created within weeks for a few hundred dollars, he said.
Across movie studios, television networks, and content production companies, AI creators CNBC spoke to mentioned using a variety of generative AI tools, including Midjourney, Adobe Firefly, Kling, MiniMax, Seedance, and Google’s AI Studio.
Platforms like Higgsfield are also popular because they allow creators to work with multiple generative AI tools.
This technology also lowers the barrier for new entrants.
Sudarshan Srinivasan, who works as an executive producer in the Tamil film industry, has wanted to direct his own feature film for years. Like many outsiders, he finds it difficult to break into an industry where access to funding, stars and distribution relies on relationships built over decades.
AI gave him a new path.
“AI has made it easier to make films for small teams who struggle to find producers and investors,” Srinivasan told CNBC, adding that if his films don’t find backers in the next two years, he plans to produce them using AI and release them on digital platforms.
need to know
India’s central bank lowers growth forecast, raises inflation forecast
India’s central bank on Friday kept interest rates unchanged at 5.25% but raised its inflation forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2027 by 50 basis points to 5.1%, while lowering its economic growth forecast for the same year to 6.6% from 6.9% previously forecast.
India scraps tax on foreign bond investors to attract foreign capital and strengthen rupee
The government announced Friday that it has exempted foreign investors and the Bank for International Settlements, a global financial institution owned by central banks, from paying income tax on interest and capital gains. The exemption will come into effect from April 1, 2026, according to a government announcement.
India’s growth story faces toughest test yet in Modi government’s third term
India’s growing reputation as anti-artificial intelligence trade, combined with the economic strain on India’s economy from the protracted Middle East conflict, is leading to a record exodus of foreign investors.
very soon
June 12: India CPI inflation data for May.
June 13-18: Prime Minister Narendra Modi visits France and Slovakia.
