Would you see an artificial intelligence-generated film? It might occur sooner than you anticipate. Tamil cinema is already utilising AI techniques to cut costs and save time while maximising inventiveness.
Tamil cinema is slowly being affected by AI, which is altering how directors plan and carry out their works. Many people are experimenting with AI, including Senthil. For instance, Teejay-Sajanth Sritharan. He is a Tamil from Sri Lanka who resides in the UK and has produced voice models for many well-known Tamil performers.
Suriya, an actor, has captured Senthil Nayagam's heart for weeks. In an effort to "master Suriya's voice," he has obtained the actor's interviews and speeches and has been feeding them to his numerous AI (artificial intelligence) tools.
"Let's try running it now," adds Senthil, rubbing his hands together in excitement as he quickly touches his laptop. He chooses "Nilave Vaa," sung by SP Balasubrahmanyam in the 1986 Tamil film Mouna Raagam, as one of his favourite Ilaiyaraaja songs, then presses a few more keys.
Soon, the recognisable melodies of "Nilave Vaa," performed in Suriya's distinctive voice, begin to play.
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| AI Produced Image |
All of this started when Senthil questioned whether he could replace one worker with another a few months back. Following that line of reasoning, he had the late SP Balasubramanyam sing the Rathamaarey song from Rajinikanth's most recent smash, Jailer, which was initially performed by Vishal Mishra.
Senthil then took things a step further by replacing Tamannaah with Simran in the foot-tapping "Kaavala" song from Jailer using a face-swapping technique. The short video received more over 2 million views, especially after the two actresses shared it.
AI is "a toy he is experimenting with" for Senthil, who currently leads Muonium Inc., a generative AI business. He is currently using technology to imitate AR Rahman's voice in order to sing all of the songs he has written, such as "Usurey Poguthey" from Raavanan, which was performed by vocalist Karthik. We need to separate the speech from the instruments, remove any background noise, and then mix it back in. "This is actual work," he acknowledges. Some of my fans don't like the videos that include folks who have died away, therefore I get conflicting opinions about my content. However, viewers should be aware that the potential of AI is fascinating.
It is. Tamil cinema is slowly being affected by AI, which is altering how directors plan and carry out their works. Many people are experimenting with AI, including Senthil. For instance, Teejay-Sajanth Sritharan. He is a Tamil from Sri Lanka who resides in the UK and has produced voice models for many well-known Tamil performers.
These AI makers are working with producers and directors in addition to sharing their work with audiences by using AI technologies like Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, Chat GPT, or a combination of Python and GPU.
For the concept ideas and world building of his upcoming Suriya-starring film Kanguva, lyricist and dialogue writer Madhan Karky used a variety of AI tools. In order to help me develop stories or situations, I also use AI. Because we have tools like Kaiber and Gen-2 that can make animation and lyric videos, it saves a tonne of time, claims the lyricist.
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| Suriya in a still from ‘Kanguva’ |
The world's first AI-composed Tamil song, "En Mele," was produced by Madhan using a programme called SongR and is presently accessible on popular music streaming services. He explains, "I had to make it learn Tamil, which was very difficult, and in a few years, most AI tools will become fluent in all of the world's languages."
Karky also predicts that, within a year, a film entirely produced by artificial intelligence will be released.
While it might take some time, the Tamil film Weapon, starring Sathyaraj, will feature around four minutes of AI-generated content for viewers to enjoy in November. The decision was made by the filmmakers in the post-production phase when they believed that a flashback segment would enhance the movie. Director Guhan Senniappan and the team fed images of the leads (Sathyaraj and Vasanth Ravi) into a programme they had designed to create the sequences.
"It saves a lot of time," adds Guhan, who has worked on films including Sawaari (2016) and Vella Raja (2018). "Before, we would require a few days to generate one frame, but with AI, we can experiment with four to five frames in a single day and get immediate output. This is helpful when you have a tight deadline to meet. But in order for AI systems to provide the desired pictures, you must enter precise, strong keywords.
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| Sathyaraj and director Guhan on the sets of Tamil film ‘Weapon’, which will feature an AI-generated portion |
Every aspect of filmmaking, including clothing, will be altered by AI. The Indian film business will soon adopt AI to revolutionise fashion in their projects and promotional operations, according to Mohamed Akram A of OrDrobe Apparels. "Algorithms can be used to generate costume ideas that are not only visually stunning but also relevant to the storyline and character development," the author asserts. The whole cinematic experience can be improved by dressing each character differently to match their personality, time period, and storyline.
With their partnership with the producers of the upcoming Tamil film Nanban Oruvan Vandha Piragu, OrDrobe makes their debut in the movie merchandise industry. The company is eager to actively engage in the movie industry. "AI can also be used in fashion trend analysis and maintaining a digital wardrobe for characters, making it easier to recreate costumes for reshoots and to ensure character continuity throughout a film," Mohamed continues.
In the long run, producers may gain from the money and time saved by using these techniques.
Even though massive VFX teams are still a possibility for producers with a lot of money, not everyone, especially medium and small-scale film units, will have that luxury. According to experts, using AI technologies could enable them to produce 80% of the desired product for only a third of the price of VFX.
However, it does start an ethical discussion: English actor and comedian Stephen Fry recently criticised the producers of a history documentary for employing artificial intelligence to imitate his voice.
Does this all imply that artificial intelligence (AI) will eventually replace human intelligence and labour, even in movies? No, Karky feels. "There is a distinct advantage to human ingenuity. Our uniqueness is a result of our experiences and feelings.
