‘AI is the future in Bollywood, but human touch cannot go away,' says producer Siddharth Roy Kapur - Exclusive

Siddharth Roy Kapoor has backed some of the prominent works like Dangal, The Sky Is Pink, Rocket Boys, Barfi!, The Lunchbox, Aranyak, the Oscar-nominated Last Film Show (Chhello Show), and the comedy Tumse Na Ho Payega, to name a few.

Siddharth says though the future lies with AI, one cannot ignore the fact that human touch will always remain and that cannot go anywhere.

“It's time for the industry to really embrace AI and make the most of it while ensuring that the human touch is maintained because that's not going to go anywhere. I firmly believe that you'll always have the need for great writing, great acting, great direction, and great music composition. These are not things that are going to be able to be done without human beings, but if those human rights can leverage AI to help them in that, that I think would be the most effective use of it,” he added.

When asked about the fact that the Korean entertainment industry is experiencing a massive global boom, how can India achieve a similar level of global influence? Kapur said he thinks that the next two decades belong to India in the global popular culture.

“I think that the next two decades have got to be India's decade in global popular culture, the way that Korea's dominated the last two decades. You are right, with music, with their movies, with their television, with their food, with just overall Korean culture, it's been the best, you know, sort of purveyor of Korean soft power in the world. The way that Hollywood has managed to do so well for the US over the last century. And I think that the time is right for India over the next two decades to do it,” he stressed.

Elaborating on the steps that India needs to take to achieve this, Siddharth Roy Kapur said the Indian film industry needs to evolve and work on stories that will resonate with the world while staying true to our roots.

“We need to make ourselves open to telling stories that will resonate around the world. We need to pick subjects we believe will have a global appeal while being very rooted and true to the milieu of those subjects. We need to draw the world in. In a way, I think it's been a huge positive and a huge negative for us to be as big in industry as we are. Because we've been victims of our own success in the sense that we've had our own captive audience, both in India as well as the South Asian diaspora around the world.”

“Unlike other global cinema, you know, industries, we haven't had to reach out to a global audience because we've had our own audience already. And that's an audience that's so important that we must always cater to them. But there's no harm in being able to take our content even further and go mainstream and crossover. I think we should all be really focused on doing in addition to what we do for our South Asian audiences,” he further added, stressing the need to cater to the South Asian fans as well.

Most recently, many Indian films have been released in international markets like Japan, Korea, and China. Many actors from India, like Anushka Sen, Avneet Kaur, Shantanu Maheshwari, and many others, are working in the Korean and Vietnamese film industries.

Here are some excerpts from the interview: 

Ambition to use technology to tell stories in cinema

I'd say cost structures have definitely changed. Of course, there's been inflation, and things change with inflation anyway. But with the ambition of the kind of movies that are being made, so from a Kalki to a Brahmastra to a Ramayan now, our ambition is now to be able to use technology, to be able to tell stories that might be in mythological worlds or fantastical worlds. And that's a great sign, I think, for Indian cinema, where we're moving forward into telling, you know, other kinds of stories that we probably did not feel like we had the technological ability or the budget in the past. Yes. And the box office is rewarding. The ones that work are really being rewarded with revenues that are far higher than films have been making in the past.

Box Office to reward good content 

I think that's the growth of the industry that's, you know, propelling us forward—a growth in technology, the growth in ambition. And, really, I mean, this is a business where if you have a belief in something strongly and you believe that it will connect with audiences and you're able to get the right creative talent together to be able to make that happen and go in with full conviction, then the box office will reward you.

Star Value not fading away

I don't think star value is going; what it's showing is that a film without big superstars can work. I don't think star value is going, but what this is showing you is that even a film without big superstars can go out and do the sort of business that big superstar films have done or even more. And that, I think, is a wonderful sign for Indian cinema. That should see the evolution of Indian cinema. Stars will not go anywhere. We love our stars. We enjoy watching them in movies. That'll always be the case. But the fact that a Stree 2 could come in and do the sort of business that a Jawaan or a Pathan had done at the budget, at a much lower budget than it would have been made at, I think is the best sign possible for an Indian cinema.

Market and audience are asking for something compelling from makers

The market is telling us that if we give them something compelling, they will reward us even more. What I think the market is telling us and what audiences are telling us is that if we give them something compelling, then they will reward us even more than we could hope to be rewarded in the past. But if we will not give them something that meets their standards, given that they are now exposed to all kinds of content and have so many other avenues of entertainment, then they will not give us the benefit of the doubt. I think we should take that on as a challenge. That's a wonderful challenge, actually, which makes us up our game. And why should we be scared of upping our game? I think that's the challenge audiences are throwing at us. So let's take it on.

Great to work on varied content

It's great as the team gets to work on all kinds of content. We work with all kinds of filmmakers and all kinds of actors. We've got so many projects in development, in active development, and on the movie front. That, I think, is the most exciting part of the business, the Yeah. The varied kinds of stories that we can tell.

OTT trying to up its game and evolve 

A fair question. I think it's a fair question to say that it feels like we've had a lot of dark and, you know, edgy and thriller kind of content on OTT. But I do know the platforms are very cognizant of that and are now looking to expand the genres that feature. It's probably inevitable that when some things work, then you tend to make more of those things, and therefore, you know, there are certain genres. I know after Sholay, there were a whole lot of westerns that were made into you, so it's sort of dark movies. You're right. The rest of the seventies. In the nineties, you had love stories, and then there was one love story after the other, which was catered to the NRI audience. You have these phases in cinema and these phases in where inevitably, you know, creative people get drawn towards something that seems to be working. But things might reach their own level very soon, and I do think you'll see a lot more variety of content on OTT going forward.”

Not working with brothers Aditya and Kunal 

There's actually an unwritten rule in our family where we are always there to support each other on a personal level, and we'll be our each other's cheerleaders when it comes to the work that we do. But we've each watched our own parts quite well, and I think, you know, we're right. We've found a really great way of being there for each other personally when it comes to the professional work that we do as well. And so we just think it's the healthiest thing not to mix the two.

Matka King starring Vijay Varma and Deva featuring Shahid Kapoor in the leads is going to release under the banner of Roy Kapur Films soon.

Siddharth Roy Kapur's journey 

Kapur started his brand management career in Mumbai with Procter & Gamble. After his tenure at P&G, Kapur worked with Star TV in strategic planning. He also worked on the launch marketing of the first season of Kaun Banega Crorepati on StarPlus in 2000.

Post this, he moved to Star TV's Middle East operations, based in Dubai, where he was Regional Marketing Manager for the network. In 2002, he shifted base to Hong Kong and was later promoted to VP, leading the Central Marketing & Creative Services team for all Asian markets of the Star TV network.

In 2005, Roy Kapur joined UTV Motion Pictures as their Senior VP (Marketing & Communications). And many notable films were there during his tenure, including Rang De Basanti (nominated for BAFTAs) and the surprise hit Khosla Ka Ghosla in 2006.

In January 2012, he became the managing director of Walt Disney Studios. During his tenure, there were many successful films that came out of the studios, like Taare Zameen. Par, Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na, Jodhaa Akbar, Fashion, Aamir, A Wednesday!, Dev.D, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, Kaminey, Wake Up Sid, Raajneeti, Udaan, Peepli Live, Welcome to Sajjanpur, No One Killed Jessica, Delhi Belly, Paan Singh Tomar, Shahid, Rowdy Rathore, Barfi!, ABCD: Any Body Can Dance, Kai Po Che!, Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani, The Lunchbox, and Chennai Express.

In January 2014, Kapur became the MD of Disney India, and for the next two years many successful films like Dangal, The Jungle Book (2016), PK, Kick, 2 States, ABCD 2, Haider, Heropanti, Highway, Khoobsurat, and Filmistaan came out.
In 2017, Kapur founded his own production house, Roy Kapur Films, and their first movie was The Sky Is Pink, with Priyanka Chopra and Farhan Akhtar in the lead.

The film also premiered at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. Next they also delved into the OTT space and their crime thriller titled 'Aranyak', featuring Raveena Tandon, streamed in 2021.