First Time In Indian Cinema!

Tamil filmmakers have used Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to recreate a young Sathyaraj aka Katappa. The makers of the upcoming Tamil film Weapon have done this. Probably, this is the first of its kind act in the Indian cinema to create a living actor’s younger version using the AI technology.

Usually, filmmakers approach conventional animators for such sequences. However, director Guhan Senniappan and his team experimented with the AI. The sequence turned out to be good. Director got inspired from seeing the AI-generated images on social media which look terrific. Director Senniappan made the young Sathyaraj on a trial and error basis. He says it was easy as there was clarity for his team with the footage of the artists and locations.

A team of five members have worked on the AI sequence. An open-source software with an AI plugin was used to create the 3D images. The film is a superhuman saga headlined by Sathyaraj, Vasanth Ravi and Rajiv Menon.

Hollywood movie Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has attempted such using AI technology. But for Indian Cinema, this is first of its kind.

AI technology is still growing and evolving. It is said that it hasn’t reached the level yet to design the specific skin tones of Indians. Currently, the technology is only familiar with the skin tones of Americans and Europeans. The looks are resembling western. The backdrops, skin tones are said to have western touch. So, bringing nativity using the AI technology is said to be the challenge for the filmmakers.

Overall, it is a brave and great attempt by director Guhan Senniappan and the whole team of Weapon for this innovative development in the filmmaking and thus creating a history. It is a laudable attempt. Directors like SS Rajamouli, S Shankar may take this forward in the coming days. Let’s wait and see.