Breathe creators turn to new AI division for next blockbuster and double-digit revenue boost

In one year of full operations of Abundantia aiOn, the new AI division, Malhotra expects it to contribute 10-12% of the company's total revenue. "By year 3, I see that number jumping to about 30-35%."

Listing down the benefits of AI, he said, "It's cost efficient. It's time efficient. It allows you to produce more at scale."

The first AI-led content by the studio will be released next year called Chiranjeevi Hanuman – The Eternal--- a full length feature film.

"It is the most liberating experience that we are having as creators working not just on Chiranjeevi Hanuman, but at the new division. It's about limitless imagination. It's about not worrying about how much and how many hundreds of crores this is going to cost, but just thinking about what's the best tool to bring this to life," he said.

"It's about not having to worry about the time that it will take to create a new world that's being imagined by a writer or a director or a showrunner, but it's about how quickly we can do it and how uniquely can we make it look. So it is technology empowering human talent. AI is amplifying creativity," he added.

At the new creative division, writers, directors, researchers, technicians are learning to work with the new technology, Malhotra noted. "Taking specific input and creative help of AI for our live action projects in the form of virtual production or visual effects (VFX). Or for character and world development, to visualise scripts."

Hiring for AI

When it comes to talent, the content company is training its existing team and looking for new hires.

"It makes perfect sense for me to get the existing Abundantia creative and production team who bring their storytelling prowess, their talent networks to aiOn and help jumpstart the business. We are also getting writers and directors who have an affinity and possess the right imagination to be able to work with technology and to leverage AI tools to do their jobs even better. We are also out there in the market calling newer writers, newer directors."

Malhotra noted that using AI is not about machines telling stories.

"It will be a human vision, a human voice and human creativity that will drive the stories. I believe this is not about machines telling stories. This isn't about automated tools making movies. This is about humans being at the center of it and the human mind and creativity leveraging exponentially AI to tell their stories in a better and more impactful manner than ever before."

AI not a fad

He however said that the entertainment industry needs to go beyond AI being a trendy thing to do. "We need go beyond it being a flavor of the month to actually understanding the disruptive and game-changing power that AI carries for the entertainment business."

It needs to be something that delivers sustainable value and not flashes in the pan, the founder said. "After having spent some time understanding technology, understanding the tools available, assessing what they could do to the process of what Abundantia does in its day work, we realized that the power that AI can unleash through our creative ecosystem could fulfill the ambition of being game-changing and disruptive."

Big content slate

Along with the upcoming content under its new division, the company is gearing for the release of its new titles across cinemas and streaming.

This includes Subedaar, an action drama starring Anil Kapoor, Daldal, an Amazon original series starring Bhumi Pednekar, an untitled comedy film featuring Madhuri Dixit, Triptii Dimri, Dharna Durga and Ravi Kishan, and an untitled business drama series, being directed by Hansal Mehta.

"We have multiple projects especially in streaming going out within this financial year but most importantly the highlight of FY26 is our investments and the work that we've been doing that will come out in FY27 and FY28 which is providing for very strong predictability and continued growth and profitability for the company," Malhotra said.

He added that the company has been profitable since FY24.

Its breakthrough content this financial year was Chori 2. "Seeing its performance on Amazon Prime Video, it was a very successful outing for the second edition of the Chori franchise. It was also the second film for our horror vertical. It's given us even more confidence to create more and more work in horror."

He added that a huge part of their slate is for the next 3 years which will go into production in the next 6 to 9 months.

"FY26 is a robust year but what's more exciting is that it's setting up the stage for a very strong FY27 and an even stronger FY28," Malhotra said.