Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], October 7 :  The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) and YouTube have marked a key milestone in the ‘Create with AI’ programme with the launch of its first four AI-enabled short films.
Announced in November 2025, the initiative aims to support AI-driven creative projects and strengthen India’s capabilities in emerging technologies. The debut of the four films marks a significant step towards building a robust ecosystem for AI-led filmmaking and positioning India as a global leader in the creative use of artificial intelligence

The films developed by Eleventh Door Studio, Avium Studios, Karthik Kult Kreations and Kalpanik Films LLP were unveiled at the IICT Theatre in Mumbai and released by the filmmakers on their YouTube channels, along with IICT.
The programme combines IICT’s infrastructure and faculty mentorship with YouTube’s AI software, tools and credits, enabling the participating studios to experiment with AI across concept development, visualisation, production and post-production.
 
Audiences can also watch exclusive behind-the-scenes content, exploring the tools, techniques and creative processes deployed by the teams.
 
Filmmaker Rajesh Mapuskar attended the showcase, engaging with the creative teams.
 
Dr Vishwas Deoskar, CEO, IICT, said, “India has the opportunity to lead the next chapter of AI-led filmmaking. The Create with AI programme brings together institutional mentorship and access to advanced AI tools, giving Indian creative studios the opportunity to experiment, build capabilities and develop new filmmaking workflows. This is an important step towards creating an ecosystem that can place India at the forefront of AI-driven storytelling.”
Speaking to the media, Dr Vishwas said, "We want to boost the filmmakers of India at the national and international levels... The scope is very big. Technology is evolving at a very rapid pace, and creativity has to evolve alongside it. That merger between technology and creativity is extremely important. We have already seen what AI can do and the possibilities it can unlock. It is important for us to understand the immense potential of AI and recognise the many things it can enable in the creative space." 

Gunjan Soni, Managing Director – India, YouTube, said, “India has always been an extraordinary storytelling nation, but we are now seeing independent creators build production powerhouses on their own terms. Generative AI fundamentally removes production bottlenecks—giving creators valuable time back to focus on writing, world-building, and craft. Our partnership with IICT demonstrates what happens when fearless Indian storytelling meets frontier technology to produce world-class cinema on an independent scale.”
 
According to a new Gen Media India report by Public First and Google, generative media tools offer a 20% productivity boost for creative workers in India. That translates to saving roughly 390 hours every year – effectively giving creators nearly ten full weeks back just to focus on writing, world-building, and refining their craft.
 
Ninad Raikar, COO, IICT, said, “The question for us was never whether AI will replace creativity, but what becomes possible when we equip creators with these new tools. Create with AI was designed as a hands-on experiment—bringing together Google and YouTube’s AI technologies, IICT’s infrastructure and faculty mentorship, and the imagination of filmmakers. The four films show that AI is most powerful when it expands creative possibilities while the filmmaker remains firmly at the centre of the storytelling process.”
 
The Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) is India’s National Centre of Excellence for Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics and Extended Reality (AVGC-XR), established with the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India, Government of Maharashtra, FICCI and CII. Its first campus began functioning at the NFDC Complex in July 2025, while a permanent 10-acre campus is being developed at Film City, Goregaon. IICT currently offers 18 courses and has partnerships with leading global technology and media companies.