Vikram Bhatt, AI, and the Future of Filmmaking
Vikram Bhatt’s latest flick, Haunted 3D: Echoes Of The Past , it’s definitely been a box office black sleep. Day one numbers were Rs 2.5 crore nett. That beat out films like Main Vaapas Aaunga and Bharat Bhhagya Viddhaata .
But there's the fallout, right? It got panned because of how he used AI in it. Social media went wild. People were trolling him constantly about visual glitches, poor VFX messing up the whole story.
Vikram reacted to all that noise on News18. He said something kind of dismissive, you know? He mentioned that a lot of people just took real locations from the film and treated them like they were genuine AI creations.
He pushed back hard. “The funny thing is,” he put it, “a lot of people have taken real spots in the film as AI.”
He didn't back down then. He talked about using AI without hesitation. “Fine, let’s just say we used AI,” he said. Then he asked a rhetorical question to the audience: “Are you coming to see a film and enjoy the story or do you think this is Nat Geo and you’re coming to see real locations?”
He argued that making a big movie on his budget was impossible, so he used what he had AI. And the people who actually watched it? They liked it. That’s the line.
Then there's the ghost issue itself. He made this point about casting ghosts. “So what if my film has AI?” he asked. Then he pivoted sharply. “Either you want to see the film or you don’t.”
He went straight into a defense of the concept. “Some people said yeh bhoot toh AI. Arrey, main kahaan se real bhoot laau? Bhoot toh AI, special effects, CGI ya prosthetics se hi bana hoga na.” He paused there. He couldn't just conjure a real ghost and tell it to show up for the shoot at nine in the morning.
He tried to draw a line between his work and other films shot on sets. “Historically,” he said, “we’ve had films shot on a set. And most of the times, I can make out it’s a set and so can the audience.” He threw that back at the critics: “Why don’t you then say that yeh toh set hai, real bungalow nahi hai?”
He kept pushing the analogy. Look at Shaan ’s den. You know it’s not real. It’s underground, there are fishes swimming around. Why didn't they just point out that sets are fine, but AI isn't? He said, “Sets chalta hai par AI nahi chal sakta. What’s the difference between the two? It’s the same.”
It really felt like a commentary on how we perceive filmmaking now. A strange perception of what a movie should look like.
He brought in Hollywood to make his point about escaping this criticism. “Why did Star Wars become a hit?” he asked. Because it was shot in space. You can’t argue that the space wasn't real, right? There isn't some actual planet out there we need to verify.
But Haunted 3D was about Maniktala. He had to build a separate world. That necessity led him to use AI. It needed to be dreamy, eerie, strange. That’s the goal.
The director continued this thought: “The village shown in Haunted 3D stuck in time.” That feeling you want to generate. A lot of American films do that. They create a world. And you know it’s CGI. Avatar is CGI. It doesn't automatically mean the story itself is good or bad. It just means they built something different.
Written by Gree News Team — Senior Editorial Board
Gree News Team covers international news and global affairs at Gree News. Our collective of senior editors is dedicated to providing independent, accurate, and responsible journalism for a global audience.
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