India’s entertainment just took on a futuristic dimension. JioStar and Collective Media Network have collaborated to produce Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh – Sanskrit, a high-end reimagination of the Sanskrit epic powered by artificial intelligence.
The show, a 100-episode series that aims to combine “ancient wisdom and modern tech,” has been billed as India’s first AI-driven premium program, The Economic Times reported.
Debuting Oct. 25 on JioHotstar and a day later on Star Plus, the show is looking to bring an entirely new, almost otherworldly level of visual storytelling.
“It is one big celebration of modern India,” said Kevin Vaz of JioStar, and Collective Media’s Vijay Subramaniam said it was an emotional reinterpretation of the epic that would allow the audience to “experience the divine conflict like never before.”
But there is an undercurrent of tension beneath the euphoria. Can an algorithm really capture the spirituality, the nuance, the heartbreak of the Mahabharat? Some filmmakers are optimistic.
As I recently reported for Reuters in a feature on AI in Indian cinema, directors across Mumbai and Hyderabad are already employing machine learning to reduce the cost of making movies and create cinematic universes more quickly. Others, though, worry that speed may translate to soullessness.
The entertainment industry is on a similar wave worldwide. Disney has been testing out machine-assisted visual effects to speed up production, which Hollywood Reporter covered in its survey of how the studio is using AI.
Netflix’s anime alley, meanwhile, has been trying its own hand at AI-assisted backgrounds to a mixed reception from artists who insist you can’t reproduce the human touch no matter how advanced the tech becomes.
This has a different cultural weight when we are talking about it in the Indian context. In mythology this isn’t content, it’s sacred inheritance.
A recent BBC article on AI’s recasting of ancient myths observed that while AI can amplify old stories, it risks draining them of the mystery that makes them perennial.
The makers of Ek Dharmayudh are adamant that their technology is to supplement rather than replace human creativity. Yet the line between reverence and reinvention has seldom seemed thinner.
For me, the concept is simultaneously captivating and terrifying. It’s beautiful to see centuries-old myths come alive in code, but there’s also a shiver that the machines have turned into curators of our mythology.
Perhaps that’s the point. The true battle of Kurukshetra, it appears, is not just between gods and kings anymore — but rather human imagination versus the digital mind that dares replicate it.
