AI could disrupt traditional entertainment studio model as production costs fall

Mumbai: Artificial Intelligence (AI) could upend the traditional entertainment studio model as falling production costs allow creators and smaller production houses to make more content, raise their own finance and retain more intellectual property, reducing their dependence on broadcasters, OTT platforms and short-video apps, industry executives said. The shift is already visible in audio entertainment and microdramas, where generative AI is lowering production costs and accelerating content creation. If those economics extend to films and premium scripted series, they could challenge a studio model built around large teams, significant capital and specialised production infrastructure.

“Most people think that there’s too much content and I think they haven’t seen all of it yet. I think there’s going to be way more content and the level of innovation that will come in content with AI is phenomenal, and people should get ready for that,” JioStar vice-chairman Uday Shankar said recently.

India’s large media companies are already moving AI from post-production into the production pipeline. JioStar has launched an end-to-end GenAI studio and released an AI-generated Mahabharat series, while Balaji Telefilms has begun producing AI-led shows. Kuku Technologies is building an AI-led production unit in Mumbai that it plans to expand to about 1,000 people by the end of the current financial year. “Audio and microdrama platforms are already using AI extensively in content creation, and the same shift is likely to extend to long-form premium content,” said a media analyst tracking the sector. The economics are changing in audio. Pocket FM says the cost of producing an hour of audio drama has fallen from $2,500 under its traditional professionally generated content model to around $30 using AI. It says 100 hours of production that once took a year can be produced in a day.

Pocket FM CEO Rohan Nayak said AI can now handle much of the production pipeline, from writing and voice production to post-production, while the creative direction remains with the writer or creator. “Anyone can now produce a studio-quality audio drama at their home. They don’t need a big budget. They don’t need writers’ rooms. They don’t need big studios. They don’t need a large team,” Nayak said. Pocket FM says more than 550,000 creators are producing over 2.5 million hours of AI-powered content on its platform. As those costs fall, smaller production companies could finance projects themselves, retain their IP and approach platforms for distribution and monetisation. ShareChat CFO Manohar Charan said change is visible in China, where microdrama production has expanded even as traditional studio production declined.