Jun 24, 2026 · 59 min · 11 segments
First came hesitation. Naturally, given both guests are filmmakers. But once the threshold was crossed, there was no looking back. For Shakun Batra — director of K*apoor & Sons, Gehraiyaan, and Ek…
Shakun BatraGuest
Gianfranco GaioneGuest
Brady NgHost
Vidhatri RaoHost
I think in October twenty-four, I was shooting a commercial, and we had a shot of a traffic jam on a highway.
And I first obviously tried to see if we can get a location where we can create a traffic jam and, you know, it is hard to block an entire highway.
And then, uh, we built, uh, you know, in a studio space, we built with chroma everywhere.
We built an entire booth to, with a moving arm, and that cost us a lot of money.
And while I was doing this, I was like, "Hey, why don't..." I was already flirting with AI, you know, Midjourney and some shots and, and I was like, "Why don't I try this and just see what it looks like in AI?" And it took us a while.
It took us, back then it took us, like, two and a half weeks to just do that one shot, right? Because we had to place every car model.
Uh, and back then it was all Comfy UI and Midjourney and, you know, building, building in that way.
So it took us a while, but, but here's to my surprise, when I finished the shot and I presented the ad to the client, I showed him a fully VFX shot that we shot, so we, we put in everything, replaced the chroma, and I showed him the AI shot, and they bought the AI shot, which was one, one-seventh, one-tenth the cost of what we had spent on set.
And I think that's where for the first time I was like, "Oh, it is going to move in this direction.
It is very clearly going to be a, a full pipeline where you can build movies." And of course it had limitations back then.
And everything I thought would take maybe a year happened in four months, and things that I thought would take two years happened in six months.
And I think the pace of it is what really surprises every filmmaker, right? You feel like...
And that's why, you know, I, I meet a lot of people like, like, "Hey, I want to build this AI filmmaking tool," and I'm like, "Everything you're imagining right now, uh, you know, the big fours are already working on that tool, so there's a chance that they're already kind of coming in the next pipeline." And, uh, there are still, as I said, there are still things that are going to improve.
Uh, you know, not everything is perfect, but I think, I think it is very, very clear that these tools are not just here to, uh, you know, do very primilin- preliminary work.
I think these tools, once learned correctly with a small set of people and team, you could fully go into making films now.
I think in October twenty-four, I was shooting a commercial, and we had a shot of a traffic jam on a highway.
And I first obviously tried to see if we can get a location where we can create a traffic jam and, you know, it is hard to block an entire highway.
And then, uh, we built, uh, you know, in a studio space, we built with chroma everywhere.
We built an entire booth to, with a moving arm, and that cost us a lot of money.
And while I was doing this, I was like, "Hey, why don't..." I was already flirting with AI, you know, Midjourney and some shots and, and I was like, "Why don't I try this and just see what it looks like in AI?" And it took us a while.
It took us, back then it took us, like, two and a half weeks to just do that one shot, right? Because we had to place every car model.
Uh, and back then it was all Comfy UI and Midjourney and, you know, building, building in that way.
So it took us a while, but, but here's to my surprise, when I finished the shot and I presented the ad to the client, I showed him a fully VFX shot that we shot, so we, we put in everything, replaced the chroma, and I showed him the AI shot, and they bought the AI shot, which was one, one-seventh, one-tenth the cost of what we had spent on set.
And I think that's where for the first time I was like, "Oh, it is going to move in this direction.
It is very clearly going to be a, a full pipeline where you can build movies." And of course it had limitations back then.
And everything I thought would take maybe a year happened in four months, and things that I thought would take two years happened in six months.
And I think the pace of it is what really surprises every filmmaker, right? You feel like...
And that's why, you know, I, I meet a lot of people like, like, "Hey, I want to build this AI filmmaking tool," and I'm like, "Everything you're imagining right now, uh, you know, the big fours are already working on that tool, so there's a chance that they're already kind of coming in the next pipeline." And, uh, there are still, as I said, there are still things that are going to improve.
Uh, you know, not everything is perfect, but I think, I think it is very, very clear that these tools are not just here to, uh, you know, do very primilin- preliminary work.
I think these tools, once learned correctly with a small set of people and team, you could fully go into making films now.
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