‘Raanjhanaa’ and AI controversy: Farhan Akhtar comes out in support of director Aanand L. Rai

Mumbai: The controversy around the AI-altered ending of the Dhanush-starrer ‘Raanjhanaa’ has been gaining momentum, as the artist fraternity has called it a gross misconduct, and exploitation of power by the producers of the film.

Bollywood multi-hyphenate Farhan Akhtar, who is awaiting the release of his upcoming war epic ‘120 Bahadur’, has decided to stand with the director of the film Aanand L. Rai, whose consent was not taken before altering the film’s ending.

Farhan, who attended the trailer launch of ‘120 Bahadur’ in the Lower Parel area of Mumbai on Tuesday, told the media, “I will always stand with the creator of the film. And if the creator of the film was unhappy about his or her work being changed, I will always support the creator. So that’s where my loyalty lies. The rest, the finer print of what happened there, I am not privy to. But that’s all I can say about that”.

Farhan’s business partner Ritesh Sidhwani, who co-owns Excel Entertainment with him, concurred, “I agree with Farhan. I think AI is something we need to embrace and use in the most right way and effective way. And I have said this even before. There were times when, I am talking of earlier times, when we used to do research based on going to a library, reading a book, opening that. Then Google came into our lives and we started doing it in a different way. I think you need to use AI smartly”.

“And don’t get lazy with it. But I absolutely agree with the fact that you can’t do it without the consent of something. I haven’t seen this but I have heard about it and read about it. And I don’t think it’s cool that if the filmmaker as well as the actors and the people involved have not given the consent, it shouldn’t be done. So I think AI is here but you have to use it very smartly. And use it to your advantage”, he added.

IANS