Picture abhi baaki h(AI): How AI is reimagining cinema

When filmmaker and entrepreneur M.S.N. Karthik set out to make his latest film Unmasked, he wasn’t assembling a traditional crew of dozens of technicians, camera operators and visual effects (VFX) artists. Instead, the eight-minute supernatural thriller was largely created by a single person working through a web of AI tools.

Channeling the spiritual intensity of Kantara, Unmasked centres on a skeptical Gen-Z vlogger trying to uncover the truth behind the fire ritual of a Theyyam dancer. What begins as an attempt to debunk a tradition turns into a journey that blurs the line between performance, faith, and divinity.

The film kept viewers hooked at the Delhi AI Film Festival, held alongside the India AI Summit, and won Karthik an award and $2,200 prize money.

Karthik’s experiment is part of a broader shift reshaping how films are produced