Amitabh Bachchan flags AI as great concern for film industry

PUNE: Veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan on Saturday said artificial intelligence, especially face-mapping, was a great concern for the film industry.

Referring to the strike by Hollywood actors and writers last year in support of more regulations on AI in their contracts, Bachchan said that objections were raised against directors and producers laying claim to face-mapped images of actors. The veteran actor, who was accompanied by Rajya Sabha member and actress Jaya Bachchan, was speaking at the inaugural function of the two-day independent film festival at the Symbiosis International University campus at Lavale.

"One of the things that is of great concern is AI and a lot of people are objecting to the fact that all of us are now being subjected to face mapping. Our entire body is going to be face-mapped and will be kept aside and can be used at any point in time. It is coincidental that just yesterday, a famous studio in Mumbai gave me a demonstration of face mapping. They showed me Tom Hanks coming into the frame, saying a lot of things, walking to a couch and sitting on a couch etc and he walks out of the frame and in walks a Tom Hanks again - as a 20-year-old - saying the same things, acting the same way, behaving the same manner, using the same dialogues. A lot of objections are also being raised and I believe that there is some sort of strike in Hollywood by artists because producers and directors who do your face mapping are laying claim to it, and saying this is our property we will use this whenever we want. There will be a time when Symbiosis will call my AI and not me personally," said Amitabh Bachchan.

The jam-packed auditorium erupted in deafening cheers and applause as soon as Bachchan arrived. From multiple PhD holders to students to staffers to bouncers, the superstar's presence seemed to turn everyone from different age groups and diverse backgrounds into a bunch of starry-eyed fanboys and girls, ready to jump on their feet and hurrah with admiration every time the actor moved. A small clip portraying Bachchan's varied blockbusters ranging from Don to Sholay to Pink to Piku was greeted by the audience with thunderous clapping.

Jaya Bachchan, who was the guest of honour at the function, called for the need to improve the marketing of films. "In our country, we make a lot of films, but marketing is less. We need to improve that part of cinema activity," she said.

Amitabh Bachchan spoke about how the film industry, which is known as the largest in the world, comes under a lot of criticism and accusations. "People say you are responsible for changing the morals and attitude of the country and its people. But stories and films are made from experiences we notice in nature, the world and everyday life and that is what becomes our inspiration," said Bachchan.

Revealing a warm interaction with his late father, which touched upon why people watch cinema, Bachchan said, "During the last years of his life, my father would watch a film every evening. One day I asked him, 'You watch these films every evening, aren't you bored? What do you find in Hindi cinema? He replied I came to see poetic justice delivered in three hours. You and I will not get to see poetic justice in a lifetime, perhaps several lifetimes."

He spoke about how the chip replacing celluloid films changed the way films are made and also referred to the number of edits in cinema, which according to him has gone up by three to four times as compared to the films made in the fifties.

Bachchan concluded the function by reciting a few couplets from Agneepath, a poem written by his father Harivansh Rai Bachchan.



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