An AI-led 'scrollworthy' 'Mahabharata' for Indian Gen Z

Time of India

4 days ago

Marrying ancient stories of India with the contemporary technologies of the world, is what
Vijay Subramaniam
, group CEO of
Collective Artists Network
, aims to do with his creation '
Historyverse
' beginning with "Mahabharata" tailored for social media consumption.
The adaptation is set to be India's first AI-led micro-drama comprising over 600 episodes, each lasting three to four minutes. This format is designed to resonate with the shorter attention spans typical of Gen Z and young millennials.
"For me, the real kick about the Historyverse is how do you marry technology, progress, creativity and formats, that's the trifecta, I don't think AI is the winner here, the fact that you can churn out stories at scale, at speed about the history of the country, AI is the enabler," Subramaniam told PTI in an interview.
He said he has designed "Mahabharata" series in a way to capture the attention of the young audience of India as the country one of the largest youth populations in the world.
"We've the youngest youth population in the world so my lens is what the kids will see. So, I've to maintain the divinity and devotion of what my grandmother would like but I'm not making her watch it, I'm making the kids watch it, I'm making the rank and file of India watch it," he said.
"For me, serving spirituality in a palette that young India can watch is my target without affecting the divinity and the holiness of the text," Subramaniam added.
The choice of social media platforms like Instagram for releasing the series, Subramaniam said, is a conscious decision as he wants to transition traditional content into a format that can be "scroll-worthy".
Subramaniam believes that there is an attention deficiency across the country so it is his goal to teach his daughter of mythological gods and goddesses in a format that she likes.
"If I need to get her (his daughter) out of Captain America and Iron Man and make her watch this, it has to be in that scroll worthy format. So, you're marrying the format, which is micro, you're marrying technology and you're managing and you're marrying rich storytelling, that's the holy trinity. When these three come together I believe magic will happen," he said.
According to the creator, him and his team relied solely on AI to generate everything from visuals to voice overs to music, and added that there are no CGI characters or any reliance on body mapping to create the series' characters.
"This is completely generated on AI; these faces don't exist on the internet and they don't exist in real life. So, these are unique faces," he said adding that they have recently launched India's first AI travel creator, first AI rock band, among other things.
However, developing AI-series comes with its challenges, the producer-creator said, adding that in narrating an epic series like "Mahabharata" it is all about evoking emotion.
"Story telling is about getting the emotion right, it has to make you feel something. It's actually not that different, people over-intellectualize AI. We grew up watching the WWF, Stone Cold Steve Austin and Undertaker weren't real, or Captain Planet, Scooby Doo wasn't real, but they all evoked. Why did you follow them? You followed an emotion, you followed the character's emotion," Subramaniam said.
Apart from mythological themes, he plans to expand their horizons further and explore narratives surrounding prominent figures such as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and various kings throughout India's history.
"We will start with mythology as a theme, then get into kings, then get into history of India, modern history of India. We're developing something for Shivaji, we're developing something for kings, for temple, it will be across the board, it won't be just one (type of show). Because I want young India to view our country from a different palette," Subramaniam added.