Key takeaways
- Director Aanand L Rai condemns the AI-altered version of Raanjhanaa as an unauthorized and reckless takeover.
- Rai emphasizes the film's original intent was compromised, stripping it of context and emotional depth.
- None of the original team members were consulted or involved in creating the AI-altered version.
- Rai describes the unauthorized alteration as an abject betrayal of the film's artistic legacy.
- The re-release features a machine-generated happy ending, contradicting the film's original tragic conclusion.
Film director Aanand L Rai has said that he does not support or endorse the AI-altered version of Raanjhanaa, calling it unauthorised and distancing himself and his team from the project.
“To watch Raanjhanaa, a film born out of care, conflict, collaboration, and creative risk, be altered, repackaged, and re-released without my knowledge or consent has been nothing short of devastating,” Rai posted on Instagram. “What makes it worse is the complete ease and casualness with which it’s been done.”
Rai added that he had no role in the altered version, and neither did the original team. “It is not the film we intended, or made.”
“I do not support or endorse the AI-altered version of Raanjhanaa,” he said.
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 AI.
Rai said the film was “shaped by human hands, human flaws, and human feeling,” and that the circulating version is “a reckless takeover that strips the work of its intent, its context, and its soul.”
Speaking on behalf of the team behind the 2013 film, Rai said, “The writer, actors, composer, lyricist, editor, technicians, and larger crew… None of us were consulted. None of us were heard.”
He called the use of AI without permission “deeply disrespectful” and added, “To cloak a film’s emotional legacy in a synthetic cape without consent is not a creative act. It’s an abject betrayal of everything we built.”
Rai thanked the creative community and audience members who expressed support. “It has reminded me of what Raanjhanaa stood for in the first place – connection, courage, and truth,” he wrote.
