Indian film company to rerelease romantic drama with AI ‘happy ending'

The Guardian

4 hours ago

An Indian film company is rereleasing a 2013 romantic drama with an alternate artificial intelligence ending without the involvement of its director, in what could be the first instance of its kind in global cinema.
Raanjhanaa, a Hindi-language film about the doomed romance between a Hindu man and a Muslim woman, will return to cinemas on 1 August under its Tamil-language title Ambikapathy. The film's original tragic ending will be replaced by a 'happy' one.
Pradeep Dwivedi, the chief executive of Eros Media Group, defended its decision, saying technological innovation was part of the company's long-term creative and commercial vision. He said the alteration was an 'exploratory baby step' and confirmed that Eros was 'significantly evaluating' its library of more than 3,000 releases for similar AI treatments.
'If the technology allows us to do something and we can do something good with it, why not?' he said. 'There has to be a symbiotic understanding of what the technology allows, what the creative process can foster, and what the audience accepts.'
The rerelease has drawn strong criticism from the film's director, Aanand L Rai, who said he learned of the move through media reports.
'I'm heartbroken that this is the future we're heading toward, where intent and authorship are disposable,' Rai told the Press Trust of India. 'All I can do is dissociate myself from such a reckless and dystopian experiment.'
He said his team had contacted the Indian Film and Television Directors' Association and was exploring legal options. Neither he nor the guild responded to the Guardian's request for comment at the time of publication.
The film starred the Tamil actor Dhanush and the Bollywood actor Sonam Kapoor as the star-crossed interfaith couple, one of whom dies in the original ending.
Eros's catalogue includes Indian classics such as Sholay, Mother India, Om Shanti Om, and Bajirao Mastani. Its streaming service, Eros Now, hosts more than 11,000 digital titles.
Dwivedi said Ambikapathy was produced entirely in-house with human supervision, and was being presented as an optional alternative rather than a replacement of the original film. Posters for the rerelease describe the ending as AI-powered, although Eros declined to confirm whether similar disclaimers will appear within the film itself.
Dwivedi said the director's criticisms were 'emotional' and omitted relevant legal context. He pointed to an ongoing corporate dispute between Eros and Colour Yellow Productions, the studio co-founded by Rai.
In an email to the Guardian, Colour Yellow's chief operating officer, Harini Lakshminarayan, said the company's partnership with Eros ended 'some time ago' due to operational challenges. 'To call this a 'respectful creative reinterpretation' while excluding the very people who made the film over a decade ago is deeply contradictory,' she wrote. She said the incident underscored 'the urgent need for fair, transparent protocols' on the use of AI, especially with archival material. 'If a finished film can be altered and rereleased without the director's knowledge, it sends out a clear and very troubling message – that the film-maker's voice is dispensable.'
The film critic Sucharita Tyagi said: 'Most directors in India don't even own the rights to their films,' referencing examples such as Vasan Bala's Peddlers, which Eros International has still not released to the public after acquiring Indian distribution rights in 2012. 'If they decide to AI alter Peddlers and then release it, then it's a different film altogether.'
The release has also raised questions about how the film's new 'happy ending' may reinterpret its interfaith storyline, a sensitive topic in India's political and cultural landscape. 'The film works because these are people trying to defy social norms,' said Tyagi. 'To now decide what a 'happy ending' looks like, 13 years later, is scary.'
Ambikapathy is scheduled to open before Rai's latest feature, Tere Ishk Mein, also starring Dhanush and due for release in November. Rai has described the new film previously as being 'from the world of Raanjhanaa' but not a sequel. Eros, which holds the rights to Raanjhanaa, has denied any connection between the two projects.
The rerelease comes amid growing experimentation with AI across the global film industry. In Hollywood, AI has been used for voice cloning, dubbing and visual effects, including accent enhancement in The Brutalist and simulating the voice of Anthony Bourdain in the 2021 documentary Roadrunner. Concerns about AI-generated scripts and the use of actors' likenesses were key issues in the 2023 writers' and actors' strikes.