Not the Ending We Knew: In Rewriting Raanjhanaa, AI Rekindles Its Conflict With Art

Raanjhanaa, a 2013 romantic tragedy that etched itself into public memory with its heartbreaking ending, will return to theatres under its Tamil-language title Ambikapathy. But this time, the story won’t end in tragedy.

Eros Media Group is re-releasing the film with a machine-generated ‘happy ending,’ created using artificial intelligence, without the knowledge or involvement of its original director, Anand L Rai.

Harini Lakshminarayan, COO of Rai’s production house, reportedly said that it is contradictory to call this a ‘respectful creative reinterpretation’ while excluding the very people who made the film over a decade ago. She added that the move highlights an “urgent need for fair, transparent protocols” on the use of AI in creative work.

That contradiction lies at the heart of this debate: Where does creative ownership end and corporate control begin? Director M G Srinivas told AIM: “Once a contract is signed, the complete authority lies with the production house.” In legal terms, the studio owns the film. 

Journalist Mohar Basu put it plainly, “Well, because the IP of what you make is not yours anymore.” In an industry where artists often work within tight commercial contracts, the rise of AI introduces an even starker divide between creation and control.

As the film returns with a machine-made happy ending, the filmmaker’s absence from the creative process draws us back to Roland Barthes’ idea: once a story is told, who owns it?

This marks what could be a global first, an existing film re-edited and rereleased with an AI-generated alternative ending, as a commercial release. The implications are far-reaching. For some, it signals a brave new world where technology can breathe new life into old stories. For others, it’s a breach of artistic consent, one that reopens the debate around ownership, emotion, and authenticity in the age of AI.

Director Anand L Rai is reportedly “heartbroken,” and not without reason. Raanjhanaa was never meant to be a love story that ends in smiles. Its power lay in its realism, the religious divide, the unreciprocated love, and the devastating consequences of obsession and political manipulation. To replace that with a neatly wrapped happy ending may feel like cultural sanitisation, an effort to re-engineer emotion at the cost of honesty.

Eros Media Group CEO Pradeep Dwivedi defended the decision, calling it an “exploratory baby step” in the company’s long-term creative and commercial strategy. He confirmed that Eros is now evaluating its library of over 3,000 films for similar AI treatments. According to him, it’s not just about rewriting endings, but about “technological innovation” that could reshape how films are preserved, updated, or even reimagined for newer generations.

Amit Sheth, a noted figure in artificial intelligence, is unconvinced. Asked which movie he’d want to recreate using AI, he pointed to the coming-of-age classic Dil Chahta Hai. But even that, he says, would be a tall order. “Our culture, language and art, there’s a lot of emotion there,” Sheth said.

The rise of AI-generated art has already disrupted the visual and literary worlds. In cinema, de-aging technology, voice cloning, and AI-assisted animation are rapidly becoming standard tools. But revisiting and rewriting the emotional arc of a finished film, a narrative the audience has already lived and processed, crosses into murkier ethical terrain. Who decides what part of a film deserves to change?

While Eros may be testing the waters with Raanjhanaa, the wave it has triggered could have deeper consequences for the creative industry. If AI is used to repackage legacy films for new audiences, what happens to the original intent, the artistic signature and the cultural moment in which the work was first created?

The conversation isn’t just about AI or cinema. It’s about the very soul of art. About whether creativity can coexist with code, or if one will eventually erase the other in the pursuit of profit, palatability, or progress.