Exclusive - 'AI can take a portion of the market, but humans will remain at the core: Mukesh Kumar Singh on the future of AI and introduction of Tilly Norwood

Mukesh Kumar Singh talks about AI

The entertainment industry across the world is seeing a paradigm shift as Artificial Intelligence enters the creative fields, with many suggesting that AI-driven content could capture a significant portion of the market in the coming years.

From scriptwriting aids to AI enhanced dubbing and digital doubles, AI tools are no longer mere experiments in some VFX office but fast turning out to be a part of mainstream productions houses.

But the bigger question remains: will AI merely complement human creativity or eventually compete with it for market share? In this light, Moneycontrol asked noted director Mukesh Kumar Singh to answer on this especially at a time when AI generated actress Tilly Norwoodis making waves and has led to a heated debate across Hollywood.

While some are seeing Tilly Norwood as a symbol of technological progress and efficiency, others argue she threatens the emotional depth that only human performers can bring to life on the big screen.

During the course of this exclusive conversation, Mukesh Kumar Singh shared why AI may create its own niche but will never replace the human core of entertainment.

Mukesh Kumar Singh also underlined the fact that AI is here to stay and that It is a technological reality with immense potential to impact filmmaking, storytelling, and even talent representation. However, his outlook stands apart from alarmist rhetoric. Instead of focusing on AI as a threat, Singh urged the industry to recognize it as a tool—a personal assistant of sorts—that enhances efficiency and scale without replacing human artistry.

He also drew parallels to earlier industry apprehension when filmmakers were oppossed to the digital shift before embracing it. He says now almost 90% of films are shot on digital cameras. Mukesh says AI too will find its place.

The difference, Mukesh Kumar Singh noted, lies in the human eye’s ability which can detect authenticity.

He pointed out that despite rapid advances, AI-generated faces, voices, and performances are still imperfect and that the audiences can spot easily.

Importantly, he also acknowledged the curiosity and buzz surrounding AI. He anticipates that the novelty of AI performers will attract attention in the short term but fade once its limitations become apparent. The long-term picture, according to him, will not be one of replacement but of coexistence: “It is likely to create a new market or capture some portion of the market, but it is not going to destroy the existing one,” he explained.

For Mukesh Kumar Singh, the biggest takeaway is adaptability. He says that the entertainment industry also thrives by adopting and utilising new technologies and AI will certainly disrupt workflows, accelerate content creation, but open new avenues for experimentation.

He feels that the core of creativity and storytelling is only human. “Ultimately, humans will be in charge of everything,” Singh stressed, pointing to the fact that no matter how advanced AI becomes, the creative spark—emotion, improvisation, and depth—remains uniquely human.

Mukesh Kumar Singh: The world is vast and complicated; you cannot stop something by just opposing it. AI is the reality, and we have to accept it. Again, we have to say we have such a huge population and so much diversity in the whole world that we have scope for everything, even for an AI-generated character. They have a different role to play; humans have a different role to play. What course it will take or take shape in the future, nobody knows.

Mukesh Kumar Singh: It all depends on how you are going to use it. If you are going to use it to make yourself better, make your creativity faster and better, then it is a boon for us. But if you are going to misuse it, for example, you are going to give it commands like "AI create a character" or "AI write the script" and replace the scriptwriter, I don't think it is going to happen, nor will it generate a good result. AI is just your personal assistant, who can improve you. It is not the replacement of humans. Many people are trying to misuse AI; that's why this question is arising again and again. For me, AI is not a threat; AI is a tool to use and improve your work and also make it faster.

Mukesh Kumar Singh: Yesterday, I was sitting in a VFX studio and talking about AI. I saw many good things; Raj VFX is doing so many good things in AI. They showed me all the things and how they are going to take shape in the future. I had a long Q&A session with them, and I can easily say that both are going to co-exist: AI and human-created content. AI will boom for some time because it is something new; every human has a curiosity to know how it is going and what it can do. It is going to boom for some time, but ultimately it will slow down when it gets exhausted and people see that it has limitations. When I was watching AI-created creators, you can still figure out that they are AI-generated characters; their lip movements and lip syncs are not perfect. Maybe in the future, they will perfect it, and they are trying very hard. I don't think it is going to replace human eyes, which have the capacity to figure out what is natural and what is unnatural. The biggest challenge ever was to create reality—how to create anything on screen that should look real. AI is very close to reality, but human eyes can figure out what is not real.Ultimately, creativity is going to be handled by humans only. If something drastic happens in the future that I don't know, I am sure that will continue to coexist. Ultimately, humans will be in charge of everything.

It is a very interesting subject, and we should not discard it or oppose it. We should not discard it; it is better to understand it and utilize it. Just like in the beginning, filmmakers resisted digital evolution, but now 90 percent of movies are shot with digital cameras. So, in the same way, we have to understand the capacity and capability of AI and use it wisely.

Mukesh Kumar Singh: I will tell you a secret: AI-generated voices are also dubbed by some other characters, then they are converted to the same actor's voice. So it's just conversion, not creation. At least regarding voice, I have used it, so I know. And see, again, in the film industry, the threat will always be there that some new technology or new invention will come and it will disrupt everything. So it is going to happen, and even after AI, something else is going to come, and that will disrupt AI. So it is always better to adopt, understand, and utilize than to feel threatened. I think for some time it is going to gain attraction out of curiosity, but I don't think it is going to sustain for a long time because, after all, humans are humans. Cartoon characters are different; anime has a different existence simultaneously; live-action things also have a similar presence. Since long, people have been thinking that something or the other can replace or disrupt each other. TV will eat cinema, or OTT will eat cinema, but it didn't happen. So, it is likely to create a new market or capture some portion of the market; it is not going to destroy. In the long run, it is not going to happen; that is my core belief.

Mukesh Kumar Singh:  In Kannappa, there is not much use of AI. Mostly, we used AI in dubbing. Otherwise, only a few shots, or I think the vehicle videos, we used AI; otherwise, it was only CGI. In the future, I will certainly love to understand this medium and use it as much as possible to benefit the live-action stories, not completely based on AI.