Subhash Ghai: AI Won’t Replace Directors Who Can Tell a Story

At the India Today Conclave Mumbai 2026, veteran filmmaker Subhash Ghai and Whistling Woods International president Meghana Ghai Puri sat down to talk about an industry being reshaped by artificial intelligence and streaming. The conversation kept circling back to one question: when the tools change, what still makes a film work?

AI changes the tools, not the job

Ghai argued that technology may make filmmaking more accessible, but it does not rewrite the core rules. A good director and a compelling story, he stressed, remain the heart of cinema. For him, a fancier toolkit is not a substitute for point of view.

Put another way, AI can help a filmmaker try ten versions of a scene, but it cannot decide which version carries the emotional turn. That remains a director’s call.

The distinction matters for Hindi film audiences. AI can now help with visuals, dialogue cleanup, effects and marketing. OTT has changed how films reach us and how quickly they do. But those are advantages of production and distribution, not replacements for judgment, performance and narrative. When every creator has access to similar tools, the films that stand out will be the ones with a strong story.

Why Ramayana and Mahabharata still land

Ghai also spoke about the enduring power of the epics. Ramayana and Mahabharata, he suggested, are not simply properties to update with modern effects. They have lasted because they carry emotional and cultural weight that keeps resonating across generations.

That made his comments on Nitesh Tiwari’s upcoming Ramayana especially interesting. Ghai praised Ranbir Kapoor as an actor and signalled genuine interest in how the film will balance performance and spectacle. He did not hand out an early review, but his remarks set a clear expectation: the new Ramayana will be judged by its storytelling, not only its scale.

For Hindi film fans who grew up with these stories, the bar is already high. The retelling has to feel alive and familiar at once, not like a technical demo dressed as an epic.

What to watch for when the new Ramayana arrives

• Narrative over noise: The key test is whether the story and performances land.
• Ranbir Kapoor in focus: Ghai’s praise puts the lead performance under a warm spotlight.
• Epics as living stories: They endure because they connect emotionally, not because they are grand.

Ghai’s conclave appearance doubled as a quiet reminder. Every wave of new technology eventually becomes ordinary, but the ability to tell a story clearly, with a director who knows how to bring it to life, stays rare. That is the part audiences keep returning to.

Source: India Today