Indian film director Ram Gopal Varma says he's ditched human musicians in favor of artificial intelligence and will use only AI-generated songs in his future projects, a move that highlights AI's growing influence in the creative industries.
The film director and screenwriter, known for popular Bollywood films like “Company,” “Rangeela,” “Sarkar” and “Sathya,” told TechCrunch that he has launched a venture called RGV Den Music that will only feature music generated from AI apps such as Suno and Udio.
Varma said he plans to use AI-generated music in all his projects, including films, and that the music in his upcoming film “Sully” is entirely AI-generated.
In the interview, Varma urged artists to embrace AI rather than resist it: “At the end of the day, music comes from your thoughts. You need to be clear about what you want the app to produce. It's all about taste,” he said.
The director's actions come as AI continues to make its way into the creative industries, raising both excitement for new possibilities and concerns about potential job losses. Many high-profile directors, including Oscar-winner Christopher Nolan, have warned against an over-reliance on AI, arguing that AI cannot replace human intuition in artistic creation.
India leads the world in film production, producing 1,500-2,000 films a year, and its music industry is equally thriving, releasing 20,000-25,000 songs a year.
Varma criticized composers for frequently missing deadlines and overlapping schedules, and blamed lyricists for failing to capture the essence of a song. These human factors, he argued, impede the creative process and make music time-consuming and expensive to produce. AI, he argues, delivers instant results, and at “zero cost.”
“As apps continue to rapidly develop, human musicians, composers, lyricists and singers will be significantly impacted and may disappear entirely in the near future,” he predicted.
Varma said he is working with startups Reclaim Protocol and Story Protocol to protect intellectual property rights in AI-generated music using cryptographic proofs.
He said his filmmaker friends and others in the industry are also excited about the potential of AI, and he hopes to see the technology make further inroads into the Indian film industry in the coming years.