Last September, I was crafting a magnum opus for Wired about AI use in Bollywood. It was edited, polished, and ready to go on print this year. Then, the fickle news cycle in the US decided that a film industry whose collective yearly revenue is less than Hollywood's biggest hit was, well, not worth it. But while writing, a cinematic prophecy about AI and Indian cinema struck me: AI will midwife India's first true pan-Indian film.
And the proof isn't locked inside a neural net of a shiny lab; it's actually lighting up our screens in YRF's War 2. How, you ask? Behold 'Visual Dubbing' or 'Vubbing', the tech sorcery that allowed both Hrithik Roshan and Jr NTR to speak impeccable Telugu. "But wait," I hear you interrupt, "Jr NTR is Telugu!" Ah, that's the magic trick. The entire film was shot in Hindi. So, even NTR's lines were originally in Hindi and had to be digitally Vubbed into Telugu, creating a flawlessly immersive experience for the viewer.
The wizards behind this curtain are Bangalore-based Neural Garage. I met their CEO and co-founder, Mandar Natekar, at FICCI Frames in October, and we had a proper tech geek-out. I was extra excited because of my ill-fated Wired piece. I had missed War 2 in theatres, oblivious to its Vubbed glory. But the moment it hit Netflix, I pounced.
I watched it first in Hindi, then in Telugu. And the Telugu version? It was so flawless, so utterly seamless, that my brain refused to believe the film wasn't originally shot in Telugu. Hrithik wasn't just mouthing words; he was speaking Telugu, complete with all the correct intonations and voice modulations.
So, how does this digital alchemy work? Neural Garage's AI cleverly marries the visuals with the dubbed audio of the film. It subtly alters not just the actor's lip movement, but their entire facial movements using AI to perfectly match the translated dialogue, creating the delicious illusion that makes Hrithik seem fluent in Telugu and Japanese at the beginning of the film, languages he didn't utter on set.
To understand, let's travel back to the dark ages, say, two years ago. If War 2 had been released then, its Telugu version would have been a standard dub. Visually, Hrithik, NTR, and Kiara would have been clearly speaking Hindi, while Telugu dialogue poured out from the theatre speakers.
The result? A jarring case of visual dissonance. But Neural Garage's model syncs the video and audio into perfect harmony. Now, a Telugu audience feels the film was made just for them. Don't trust me? Go to Netflix, flip between the two versions. I did, and my mind went Boom! That's precisely when I decided to call Mandar for a chat.
Here's a fun twist: like it was mentioned before even Jr NTR was dubbed for the Telugu version because his parts in the shoot were also in Hindi. But unlike Hrithik or Kiara, whose Telugu voices were provided by artists, NTR dubbed his own lines.
Mandar calls this "a massive, massive change for all filmmakers and content creators who are creating content in one language and dubbing it in multiple to create new markets and new geographies of audiences", because "visual dub will make the audiences feel as if it has been filmed in the language of their choice". WAR 2 is the first film globally shot on IMAX cameras to utilise AI visual dubbing, enabling it to leap from one language to another.
Globally, the race has begun. Companies like Flawless AI use systems like TrueSync, which digitally reshape actors' lips to match new audio tracks. The first film to try this was a Swedish film, UFO Sweden, whose English-dubbed version, Watch The Skies, was released in the US in March.
So, yes, the Swedes technically beat us to the punch. But War 2 is a close second. And from a major studio perspective, it's the first, not to mention the first of its kind on Netflix. This is monumental news, and I'm baffled that it hasn't been splashed across entertainment headlines everywhere. Perhaps that's because few have yet grasped the seismic shift this represents. Allow me to connect the dots in an Indian context.
A creative head from a big Bollywood studio, whom I'd spoken to for my Wired story, shared something fascinating. They have a mythological film set in the Mahabharata with a budget so colossal that it can only be justified if the film goes truly pan-India. They're eyeing a massive South Indian superstar for the lead. The catch? His Hindi isn't strong, and making the film in his language would risk losing the massive Hindi belt, as audiences supposedly shun dubs (a point I disagree with, having loved Lokah: Chapter 1 in Hindi).
Their hope? AI will be their knight in shining armour. It could slash their VFX budget and, through flawless Vubbing, make it seem like the star himself is speaking in 10 different Indian languages, transforming their film into a true pan-Indian spectacle. This conversation happened last August. I should probably give him a ring to see how his AI-powered epic is coming along.
I hope you're starting to see the potential here. Take another example. The other day, I was with a producer who told me about a young filmmaker from the NorthEast who, some years ago, had made a stunning, culturally-rooted action film on a shoestring budget. But because it was in his native language, no one showed interest. The filmmaker, my friend said, has now given up.
Now, imagine if he had access to cheap Vubbing. He could have shot his film in Mizo and then Vubbed it into ten different Indian languages. When it played in Mirzapur, the characters would be speaking flawless Hindi, not a word of Mizo.
This means you could soon have a film made in Gujarati—a language with ironically low viewership despite a global diaspora—becoming a blockbuster not just in Gujarat, but also in Mumbai and Lucknow (in flawless Hindi), in Hyderabad (where Pratik Gandhi would speak impeccable Telugu), in Kozhikode (in charming Malayalam), and even in Barcelona, or on the lone theatre on Ingmar Bergman's Faro Island in Sweden, or in Brazil, because our man Pratik would be conversing in flawless Spanish, Swedish, and Portuguese.
This is how India can become a global cinema titan. Our stories can reach not just the diaspora, but the entire world, in their own language. Of course, it's not exactly cheap right now. Mandar told me it could cost between ₹2 lakh to ₹12 lakh per minute, depending on the scene's complexity, camera angles, and number of actors. But before you faint, a 100-minute film won't automatically cost ₹2-12 crore. Only the close-up shots, where the audience can actually tell, need this treatment. So, the real cost is far more manageable.
And even at that price, you can bet your last rupee that India will find a way to make it cheaper. We have an edge: we create films for a song with world-class visual effects. Look at Lokah: Chapter 1, made for ₹30 crore—a pittance compared to Hollywood budgets—yet it looks and feels like a $300-million epic. Do you see what I'm saying now? Do you see why this will change cinema not just in India, but worldwide? And it is starting right here.
We were a VFX hub with the likes of DNEG winning eight Oscars; soon, we'll be the Vubbing capital of the world, thanks to our cost-effective talent, English proficiency, and most importantly, a government finally waking up to the need for promoting AI, making GPUs accessible for the next brilliant startup.
In the Wired piece, I had some figures for 2024: The overall Indian box office earned ₹10,754 crores, an 18.2% drop from 2023's ₹13,161 crores. For scale, a single Hollywood film, Inside Out 2, grossed ₹14,600 crores—35.7% more than the entire Indian cinema combined. With this tech, though, Indian cinema can forget these embarrassing stats and go toe-to-toe with Hollywood. Soon, great Indian cinema will be released in Hollywood with our stars speaking in perfect American accents.
So, Watch the Skies, indeed, for War 2 has opened, and it is coming to a screen near you, in a language you call your own: No matter what part of the world you live in.
