In a quiet corner at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre, Shekhar Kapur speaks with the effortless calm of a man who has lived multiple creative lifetimes. The Oscar-nominated filmmaker behind Elizabeth (1998), Elizabeth: The Golden Age (2007), Bandit Queen (1994) and the cult classic Mr India (1987), Kapur carries the reputation of an auteur who is as difficult to categorise as he is impossible to ignore. But today, he wasn’t talking about his past. He was talking about the future and what he calls the “tsunami of AI.”
“People are not fully comprehending what’s coming,” he tells BW Businessworld on the sidelines of Bengaluru Tech Summit 2025, leaning forward. “They believe it’s going to affect somebody else.”
For a filmmaker who has moved with rare agility between Indian parallel cinema and Hollywood epics and who won a BAFTA, a National Award, multiple Oscar nominations and global acclaim, Kapur is no stranger to disruption. But even he admits that what AI is about to unleash is unlike anything cinema, or society, has witnessed.
‘The Pyramid Will Collapse’
Kapur illustrates his point with a story, one that sounds like a parable for the generative AI age.
“A CEO prepares for a USD 10 billion pitch deck. A cleaning lady finds his torn papers in a bin, reconstructs the pitch using AI, and produces a version better than the CEO’s.”
“How is her document better?” Kapur asks. “Because AI already gives her what he has, which is knowledge, experience, expertise. The only difference left is intuition. And intuition is strongest where the need is greatest.”
His conclusion is blunt. “The societal pyramid we’ve built, of Harvards, of CEOs, the elite hierarchies, it’s going to collapse. AI removes inertia. And hierarchy survives only on inertia.”
He compares the future to a murmuration of birds: swarms shifting direction instantaneously, directionless yet perfectly aligned. “Tell me, which bird decides to turn? None. They all move intuitively. We are moving toward an organisation of intuition. That is the future AI will create.”
The Most Democratic Technology in History
For decades, Kapur has championed the idea that creativity should not be confined to the privileged. With AI, he believes that moment has finally arrived. “AI is the most democratic technology ever made.”
He adds, AI equalises access to knowledge, collapses gatekeeping structures, and gives the underprivileged a shot at outperforming the elite. “A house help who learns prompting may outperform a McKinsey consultant. Think about that.”
And nowhere, he says, will this be more visible than in filmmaking.
AI Will Upend Filmmaking and Destroy the ‘Star System’
The man who once coaxed powerhouse performances from Cate Blanchett, Seema Biswas and Anil Kapoor is matter-of-fact about what AI means for the industry he helped shape.
“The entry-level cost of filmmaking has gone way, way up because of big budgets and big stars. AI will bring that hurtling down.”
He points to a future where a teenager with a laptop could create a film that competes with studios. “A kid can make an avatar today if they have imagination. They just need to learn prompting. That’s it.”
As production costs fall, the economics of stardom will collapse. “AI is going to destroy the star system. Stars charge high because budgets are high. Budgets are high because stars charge high. That cycle breaks.”
For an industry built on scarcity, in terms of screens, distribution, and production muscle, that shift could be seismic.
India’s Film Economy Is Broken and Piracy Is What Kept It Alive
Kapur’s assessment of India’s theatrical movie-watching market is unsparing. India has only 7,000-8,000 working screens, compared to China’s 90,000. “A Chinese film, released only in China, can make a billion dollars. We can’t.”
Then he drops the bombshell few in Bollywood care to acknowledge. “What has saved Indian films so far is piracy.”
He explains that stars derive value from reach and 90 per cent of their actual viewership is pirated content. “They don’t make their money from theatre audiences; they make it from advertisements and commercial deals because everyone watches their pirated films.”
AI, he says, will not just reshape filmmaking, it will remake the business model.
Technology Always Changes, Storytelling Never Does
For someone who moved the world with stories, from Bandit Queen’s brutal realism to Elizabeth’s regal introspection, Kapur has a simple prediction: “The means will change. Storytelling won’t.”
He recalls the panic that swept Hollywood when ‘talkies’ arrived, when celluloid gave way to digital, when editing shifted from splicers to software. “Every time, people said cinema was over. It never was. People adapt.”
Even in an AI-dominated future, he insists, humans will remain storytellers. “We’ve been telling the same story since early humans looked up at the sky and asked questions. We’re still doing it.”
The Real Crisis: Indian Cinema Has Lost Its Audience
If technology is one axis of disruption, culture is the other. Kapur is unequivocal: Hindi cinema has drifted far from its roots.
“The best films today are Malayalam films. They’re rooted in the culture they come from. For years, Hindi cinema tried not to be culturally specific. We even avoided using real surnames.”
OTT has revived authenticity, but theatres have lost their pull. Family audiences, the backbone of Indian cinema for decades, have disappeared. “A middle-class family can watch one film in two or three months. Tickets, food, parking – it’s too expensive. We’re not helping our audiences.”
Re-releases of classic films regularly draw crowds, a sign that the old family-oriented, emotional storytelling still has power. “We have lost touch with who we are making films for. Right now, we’re trying to create audiences that are like us, not like India.”
He Will Miss the Adventure but Not the Change
Kapur admits that he will personally miss the physicality of filmmaking which involves the chaos of sets, the adrenaline of locations. “I became a filmmaker because I loved outdoor shooting. That adventure I will miss. But I can’t hold on to that nostalgia.”
His upcoming work, including Warlord, featuring fantastical designs generated through AI, shows a creator who isn’t afraid to reinvent. “Things I dreamt of for years, AI lets me design in hours. I’m very excited. New ideas will come; new filmmakers will come. That is the most thrilling part.”
What Companies Want From Shekhar Kapur Now
Kapur now serves on the boards of AI-driven creative companies such as Studio Blo. “They all have the technology. What they need from me is narrative. Story. That’s what I bring.”
Even in an era defined by algorithmic generation, human imagination remains premium, he adds.
The Future, According to Shekhar Kapur
Kapur sees a world reshaped by intuition, creativity, and collective intelligence rather than hierarchy and privilege. “AI is democratic. It will create new voices, new stories, new ideas. The people least expected to rise will rise. And society will have to reorganise itself around that.”
For a filmmaker who has chronicled queens, revolutionaries, superheroes and rebels for five decades, the next great story isn’t historical or mythical and it’s already unfolding. And for once, even Shekhar Kapur doesn’t know how it ends. |
