After Mahabharat’s strong debut, streamer expands its AI-made content slate
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MUMBAI: Lights, camera, algorithm. After striking gold with an AI-generated retelling of the Mahabharat, JioStar is now preparing to take artificial intelligence from a one-off experiment to a full-fledged content strategy.
The streaming joint venture backed by Reliance Industries and The Walt Disney Company is developing a slate of shows and films that will be written, animated, voiced and edited entirely using artificial intelligence for its JioHotstar platform, according to media reports.
The move follows the surprisingly strong performance of Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh, an AI-generated adaptation of the ancient Indian epic. The 100-episode series attracted around 6.5 million views on its first day on JioHotstar, more than double the platform’s typical debut-day audience.
Encouraged by that response, JioStar is now accelerating its AI ambitions. The company plans to recruit about 80 AI specialists and engineers as it scales up the production of AI-generated entertainment.
Among the projects currently in development are Makaraj, a television series, Hanuman, a feature film centred on the revered monkey god from the Ramayana, and a number of short-form dramas designed for mobile-first audiences.
The strategy reflects a broader shift across Asian media markets, particularly in India and China, where production companies are increasingly exploring AI tools to create content faster and at lower cost for digital audiences. The trend stands in contrast to Hollywood, where actors, writers and animators have raised concerns about the technology’s impact on creative jobs and original artistic work.
To strengthen its AI content capabilities, JioStar earlier this year brought in Stephan Bugaj to lead its generative AI content strategy. The veteran US screenwriter and producer is overseeing the company’s expanding AI content initiatives and talent recruitment efforts.
If the strategy succeeds, JioStar could become the first major Indian entertainment company to roll out multiple AI-generated productions at scale. For an industry built on storytelling, the next big script may not come from a writer’s room, but from a prompt.
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